ii. The enormous vaulted substructions found under the southern end of the Haram are evidently the same which would be left between these embankments and the native rock; and it was apparently among these that the tyrant Simon subsisted till after the destruction of the city (Josephiis, War, vii, 2, 4). But especially does Mai- niouides speak expressly of the arches supporting the ground on this i)art in order to prevent graves and oth- er pollution beneath {L\gln(oot, Prospects of the Temjile, eh. i).
iii. That the platform (not the mere buildinri) of the Tower Antouia occupied the whole northern end of this enclosure we think is nearly certain from the following facts :
a. The scarped rock and wall on this side can be no other than the precipice, rendered more inaccessible by art, above which J<isephHS states that this tower, as well as those at the other corners of its courts, was reared ( War, v, 5, 8). No such ridge can be found to the north of this.
6. The presence of the fosse (found in the modern "Pool of Bethesda") on this part seems to limit its site. This ditch is not only referred to in the several notices of An- tonia by Josephus above cited, but in Ant. xiv, 4, 1, 2 he ■ speaks of it as being "broad aud deep," "of immense depth ;" so that it could hardly have failed to remain as a landmark in all ages.
c. The projecting bastions at the north-west and north- east angles appear to he the relics of the towers at these corners, and the projection at the Golden Gate may have been connected with the tower at the south-east corner.
(/. The present barracks of the Turkish troops are on the traditionary site of the Tower of Antouia at the north- west corner of the Haram.
iv. The actual size of the present enclosure agrees re- markably with the dimensions of the Temple's and An- tonia's areas. According to the Talmud (Middoth, u,l), the outer court of the Temjile was 500 cubits square, which, taking the most approved estimate of the Jewish or Egyptian cubit at 1.S24 feet [see CuinT], would give 912 feet as the length of each side. Now the total length of the southern wall of the Haram is 922 feet, which will allow 5 feet for the thickness (at the surface) of each wall, a coin- cidence that cannot be accidental. Again, ,Iosephus gives the distance around the whole enclosure of the Temple and Antonia together as being si.x stadia (War, v, 5, 2) ; aud if we subtract fi-om this his estimate of four stadia for the circuit of the Temple {Ant. xv, 11, ,S), we have one stadium, or about 600 feet, for the additional length of the court of Antouia northward on each side. Now this added to the square whose base has just been found will give about 1.521 feet for the sides of the entire enclosure on the east and west ; and it is a remarkable fact that the length of the Haram in this direction, according to the Ord-
•? ^/D 'i'''iceS'itrt)<;7/,averagesl.'i40feet,leaving ±L^'" again r> feet for the thickness of each of tlie three walls. We are not sure, how- ever, but that a somewhat greater thick- ness should be allowed the outer wall, which (on the west side, at least) .Jose- phus says was "broad"' {War, vi, 3, 1), aud on all sides "very strong" {Ant. xiv, 4, 1).
On this point, however, there are
some considerations that at first seem
to be powerful objections:
(a) Josephus, in the i)assage last re-
1 ferred to, makes the Temple area only
\ a stadium square. But this is evideiit-
. ly nothing more than a round number
I from mere recollection, measured only
■ by the eye; whereas the Talmud is so
I minute in its interior specification that
X. there can be little doubt which to fol-
I low. The 500 cc^ds in the me;isurement
<}• of the spiritual temple by Ezekiel (xlii,
■c~ l()-20) seem to have been taken from
;o these 500 cubits.
y' (b) The modern area is not rectangu- i lar, nor are its opposite sides parallel i or of equal length; the south-west cor- ^ ner is the only one that has been posi- ^TT 11 <• tv, lively settled as being a right angle, and isteru Wall ot the ^^^ ^^J^.^^ gj^^g jg certaiuFy longer than in some instances jj^.^^ („j ^^^ soinh. We do not conceive, drafted aud mark- therefore, that the term "square" in the Mishna aud Josephus need be so strict- ly taken, but only to mean that the area was a quadrilateral, apparently rectangular to the eye, aud of equal dimensions on the east, south, and west sides, which are exposed to view. This mode of reconcilement, we think, is better than to suppose the line on either of these sides to have been shifted, in the face of every pos- sible evidence of identity. By running the dividing line between the Temple and the court of Ant(niia immediate- ly south of the Golden Gate (so as to make this latter, which is evidently ancient, the entrance to Antouia, and not to the Temple, which had but one eastern gate), we obtain another right angle, and make the four sides of the Temple area nearly equal.