WALLS OF JERUSALEM

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 20 February 1926, Page 9

WALLS OF JERUSALEM

ONE of the outstanding archaelogical problems of Jerusalem—the location of the third wall—may (says the Manchester Guardian) now be taken to have been solved by the excavations carried on during the summer by the Jewish Archaelogieal Society, under the supervision of Dr. Mayer, of the Department of Antiquities. The first wall was either Davidie or Solomonic. The second wall was built by Antipater, and was in existence at the time of the death of Jesus. The third wall was built by Agrippa in or about, the year 41, and its construction is described by Josephus in the following words: “The beginning of the third wall was at the toweij Hippieus, whence it reached towards the Jfnorth quarter of the city as far as the tower -"xPsephinus, and then extended as far as the tomb of Helena, who was Queen of Adiabene, and mother of Izates; it then extended farther and passed by the sepulchral caverns of the Kings, and turned off again at the corner tower at what is called the Monument of the Fuller, and joined the old wall at the ravine called Cedron. ”

This description by Josephus contains numerous obscurities. We cannot identify from it the point of commencement. The tomb of Queen Helena must certainly be that which is commonly called to-day the Tomb of the Kings; but the distance of the wall from the Tomb of the Kings is not accurately indicated.

THREE IN NUMBER

LINE OF THE LAST UNCERTAIN

There is much discussion as to what Josephus meant by the sepulchral caverns of the Kings, and one probable view is that he meant no more than what to-day we call King Solomon's Quarries, near the present Herod’s Gate. Nor do we know where was situated the Tower of Hiddicus, or the Tower of Psephinus, or the Monument of the Puller. Finally, although _ the Kidron Valley is quite readily defined, the point at which the wall touched the Kidron Valley is not indicated by Josephus. In the face of so much that is obscure, there has been a strong tendency to identify the third wall with the present wall on the north and west. There are undoubtedly in various parts along this wall traces of older' masonry. But such masonry might just as well belong to the wall of Aelia Capitolina, the Roman city built on the site of Jerusalem after the destruction by the Romans as to any Jewish wall. Christian tradition clearly indicates that the Crucifixion took place outside the wall (which at the time of Jesus could only have been the second wall). To fit in with this tradition, the second wall must have run somewhere south of the Holy Sepulchre. It may be added that nothing has yet been found within the old city which can be definitely or properly identified as belonging to the second wall. And Colonel Watson, on military grounds, thinks that the second wall could not have taken the line to which the holders of this view pin their faith.