Having thus settled the general line of the outer wall of the Temple, it remains to trace the objects of interest lying along it, both on the inner aud outer sides, in which endeavor we will beLiin —
1. On the South-west corner. Here was the famous bridge of which Josephus so often speaks {Ant. xiv, 4, 2, twice ; War, i, 7, 2 ; ii, Mi, 3; vi, 6, 2 ; S, 1). Accordingly, in the f mudation-stones on the western side of the pres- ent wall, 311 feet from the south coruer, may still be seen
South-west Angle of the I'eniple Wall. (From a photo- graph.)
the three lower courses (.50 feet long^ of the first arch, evi- dently, of this bridge, which spanned the Tyropoeon. A measurement of the curve indicates that the span of the entire arch was about 45 leet (see these details in the Ord- nance Survey, p. 27), so that .Hcven such arches would con- veniently extend across the valley (350 feet, the remaining 125 feet to the wall beini; embankment) and allow suitable piers between them. This was evidently tlie "passage over the intei'mediate valley," through which
2. The first gate (from the south) on the western side of the Temple "led to the king's palace" on Ziou (Jo- sephus, Ant XV, 11, 5). This passage seems to have been originally built by Solomon (1 Kings x, 5 ; 2 Chron. ix, 4). The arches, however, may belong to the time of the re- construction of the bridge, perhaps by Herod. Here, we think, must be located "the gate Shallecheth (literally, a "casting down," perhaps with reference to the steepness of the valley), by the causeway of the going up" to Zion (1 Chron. xxvi, K! ; comp. vcr. 18); although Lishtfoot places them b^th at the norihern end of the Temple wall,
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reading Josephus's four gates in a southward order (ICoi^s, ix, 'i'20). There exists still, in fnct, a sort of eiu- bankiiieut not far norlh of this sjx)!, across which the "upper level" aqueduct from Bethlehem is probably car- ried to Moriah. This is appareuily the same with tlie gaie anciently named Sur (2 Kiu},'s xi, 6), otherwise called the Gate of the Foundation (2 C'hron. xxiii, 5). Tlie reason of the name "Sur" (literally, " removed") is quite uncer- tain. Tlie "foundation" niay refer to the liiyh base of the wall supporliuj: the bridi^e adjoiniuir. It seems to have lieeii tliis passaije l)etween Ilie alxide of the usurp- ing Atlialiah on Zioii and the rel'utre of the youni: kiug iu the Temple proper that was specially guarded ; the guards were three and the same in each, but diftereutly named: one section was at the Horse Gate (at "the king's honse"), another at tlie other end of the bridge (at this "gate of Sur," or "of the foundation"), and the third at the gales of the inner enclosure ("the doors" generally, "the gate behind the [former] guard"); so that if any enemy passed the first two among "the people in the [outer] courts," he should still be intercepted by the last before reaching the prince. Lightfoot interprets differ- ently {Works, ix, 3'iO). In the Talmud it is esjilicitly said that there was (apparently but) one (jate in the western Temple wall, and in the .<ame connection the gates are repeatedly referred to as being five in number, of which four are assigned to the other sides {Middoth, i, 1, 3). This single western one is there called Krponii.<t (ibid, i, 3). That this was the same with the gate in question, we think to be probable, from the consideration that this being the principal entrance on this side— as is evident not only from its position and the points connected, but also from the sliL'hting manner in which the rest are referred to and their destination mentioned — will account for the silence in tlie Talmud respecting the others. From the name it- self little can be safely argued; see Lightfoot's attempts to define it ( Works, ix, 226). Each of the gates in the outer wall of the Temple (as well as those in the inner wall) was 20 cubits high and 10 wide {Middoth, ii, 3), which Josephus, apparently including side and cap ornaments, extends (in the case of the inner, and therefore probably also the outer, wall) to 3(( cubits high and 15 wide {War, V, 5, 3).
3. The second gate northward seems to have been that anciently called Parbar, from a comparison of the follow- ing facts:
a. In 1 Chron. xxvi, 18, it is mentioned in counection with "the causeway," as if next to Shallechelh.
6. In 2 Kings xxiii, 11 is made mention of a gate lead- ing from "the suburbs" into the Temple, apparently not far from the palace; and this precisely agrees with the southern one of the two middle gates which- Josephus states led to "the suburbs" {Ant. xv, 11,5). Tlie word "parbar" (which only occurs in these two Biblical pas- sages, and ill Ezek. xxvii, 28) is used by the rabbins as meaning "suburb," although its radical sense would ap- pear to be an open building or space (see Geseuius and Bnxtorf, Lex. s. v.).
c. At a point 265 feet north of the sonth-vi'est corner of the Harain there still exists a gate (Bab el-Mugharibeh, "the gate of the Western Africans") in the modern wall, leading into the Haram, and in the nature of the case there must always have,been a gate near this spot.