By tlie light of such observations it is easy to recover the original features now obscured by the ruins. The eastern spur, on which the Temple stood, was flanked by t^ie Kidron on the E., and oy a narrow valley on the W., having its head near the present Damascus Gate. This ridge was artiticiallj' cut across, at an early period, N. of the Temple Area, where its level was 2460 ft. above the sea ; and a second scarp, facing S. and about 25 ft. high, was made, leaving a block of rock, on which the present Turkish Barracks stand, and a small flat plateau within, which rose gradually to a natural knoll, now known as the Sakhrah or Sacred ' liock.' From this point the plateau narrows into a ridge, which falls gradually S. from a level of 2440 It. to about 2130 ft. at the junction of the W. valley with the Kidron at Siloam. West again of the narrow western valley, now filled up to a depth of some 40 ft., the main site of the city itself was cut in two by a broad, deep recess, with steep slopes to N. and S., having its head at a narrow neck of land which rises to about 2500 ft, above the sea, and diWdes this central valley or recess from the upper part of the Hinnom Valley W. of the city. The great recess has its bed under the modern 'Street of David' (which runs down from the W. or Jafi'a Gate towards the Temple), openin" out into the narrow valley already noticed W. of tiie Temple hill. This broad, dee]) recess is now also partially filled in, to a depth of 50 ft., with rubbish, and its great breadth and the stecimess of its slopes were hardly suspected until proved by the examination of the rock in various large cisterns in its bed, hidden under the modern surface, and discovered about 1872 during the German excavations in the precincts of the old HospitJil of the Knights of St. John.
The central recess or valley* thus diWdes the •ite of Jerus. into a S. and N. quarter. Tlie S., which is generally allowed to be the ' Upper City' of Josephus, is a flat hill, measuring ahout 1000 vd». N. and S. by 600 yds. E. and W. On the rJ. it had a very steep slope, with a precipice on the N.E. ; on other sides the slopes were also steep, and the jdateau, which has an average elevation of 2500 ft. above the sea, thus stands 500 ft. above the valley beds on the S.E. The N. quarter was less extensive, and for the most part lower than the S. It was formed by a spur from the main watershed, and connected with the S. by the narrow neck or isthmu.'t already noticed, towards the W. of the city. The N. 8pura|>pcar8 to have risen into an isolated knoll of small area, * This prove) that no depreasion divides Opbel from the temple.
which is now shown as the traditional site of Calvary, the sunmiit being about 2490 ft. above the sea. In speaking of the topography of the city it will, however, be shown that the outline of the N. spur was clianged in the 2nd cent. B.C. by cutting down the E. part of the N. ridge, near the narrow valley which divided it from the Temple, and which was then filled up. The later Herodian period witnessed an extension of Jerus. beyond this N. quarter, and the hill N. of the Temple (separated oil' by the artificial ditch a.s noticed above) was then occupied, and protected by another scarp 20 ft. high, running E. and W., and now supporting the modern city wall in the N.E. quarter. The part of the hill so included in the city (and which Josephus calls Bezetha) rose to about 2520 ft. above the sea close to the N. scarp, and to 2470 ft. on the S., ojiposite the rock of the Barracks from which the fosse separ- ated it. The city also extended, on the N.W., over the flat giound beyond the knoll of the traditional Calvary, rising gradually to the water- shed of Juda'a, 2580 ft. above the sea. It would appear that from an early period the flat head of the narrow central valley was flanked by dill's, the northern of which (at Jeremiah's Grotto out- side the modern Damascus Gate) formed a remark- able isolated knoll, 2570 ft. above the sea, which is now regarded by many as the true site of Calvary. The N. ditch was probably in ])art natural, for in the cliff under the modern city wall, E. of the Damascus Gate, is the entrance to the great quarries under the city, where the .Vdeki beds were cut out for the Temple masonry. That these quarries existed early, and were not merely hewn for the building of Herod's Temple, has been shown by M. Clemiont-Ganneau's dis- covery of a rudely cut sketch of a cherub, or raan-Liull, in the ancient Heb. or Pluen. style, attributable to a period earlier than that of Ilerod, and carved on the rock wall of the quarry.
The natural water supply of Jerus. is deficient, and was very early supplemented by the cutting of rain-water tanks and aqueducts. The onlj- natural spring was in a cave on the W. side of the Kidron, S. of the Temple Area. It is remarkable for its intermittent flow, due to a natural syphon leading from a subterranean basin in the rocK. The water collected by the valleys from the rock3' watershed, and sinking, as above explained, dowai to the 'jn- iiervious dolomite beds beneath the hill spurs, also bursts out in winter at the junction of the three valleys, and flows in a clear rapid stream towards the Dead Sea. But this overflow is due to the sinking of a deep shaft at the well now called Bir Eyub (' Job's' or ' Joab's' [see below] well), which reaches down 125 ft. The well is connected with an ancient aqueduct, 70 to 90 ft. below the present surface, on the \V. side of the Kiilron Valley, and reached by stairways. Although unfinished, this aqueduct niu.'st have assisted in collucting the waters to the liir E>jub.' The water of the upper spring was also early diverted through an aque- duct to the l^ol of Siloam, as will be explained later. In the earliest period of the history ol Jerus. it is possible that the bed of the Kidron, then much deeper than it now is, — in consequence of the accumulation of rubbish,— was occupied by a stream flowing on the surface from the upper cave spring, S. of the Temple. Water also lound its way down the narrow ravine W. of the Temple hill, and is there still found in the subterranean cave of the llrimnutm e.t/i-Shf/a, or ' healing-bath,' under the W. wall of the present H<'i'<^>n enclosure. The shaft of the modern well is 8(5 ft. deep, the lower part having been apparently made in the