JERUSALEM WALLS

Taranaki Daily News, 19 May 1928, Page 23

JERUSALEM WALLS

UNDERGOING.REPAIR RAMPARTS SET UP BY TURKS. FOUNDATIONS ANTEDATE CHRIST The historic walls of Jerusalem, shateretl and rebuilt by successive conquerors since Nehemiah first made them strong in 445 8.C., are again under repair. The present walls, built by Sultan Selim I. and his son the great Suleiman 11., had slowly crumbled; the British found them in 1918 stripped of their former glories, a litter of crude shops built against their stones. At the instance of Sir Ronald Storrs, who became the British Governor of the city, the ProJerusalem Society was founded and 75,000 dollars, raised for the purpose of restoring tbe ancient landmarks. The city has been carrying* on the work since his departure. As restored by Suleiman 11., the walls presented a shining circuit of white squared stones, decorated with merlins and turrets, and many a pilgrim to the Holy Land in the sixteenth century described them as the finest in the world. Previous ramparts had been the wall of David and Solomon, strongly enlarged by Nehemiah after the Babylonian entry, the wall of the Roman city that rose on the ruins left by Titus and the wall of Selim and Suleiman. The defences since Jerusalem was taken by the Egyptians in 973 B.C. felt the impacts of conquests by Alexander the Great, Antiochus of Syria, by the Romans, who set up Herod, and by Antipater the Edomite, and by Persians, Arabs, Turks, Crusaders, Sultan Saladin and the Ottoman Empire. The final walls were erected in order to carry out the vow by Selim when, in the course of conquering Syria and Egypt he camped, at the head of a Turkish army, outside Jerusalem near the gate of St. Stephen. He was determined to destroy the city on the morrow, but that evening in his sleep there came to him a dream in which he visioned the Holy City being devoured by two lions. On awaking he decided not to carry fire and sword into the town but to girdle it with a wall. The inserptions on the stones to the north are his, dating from 1517, and his son and successor carried out the remainder of

the work. The vision of the two lions is perpetuated in the animals above the arch of St. Stephen’s gate. CONSTRUCTION TRADITIONS. In the centuries since the trowels of Suleiman’s masons were laid down, a host of legends have accumulated concerning the walls of Jerusalem. One tradition holds that they were constructed by two brothers who began work at the Jaffa Gate, and proceeded in opposite directions until their meeting at St. Stephen’s Gate in the east wall seven years later, where the lions were .:.t to mark the end of their task. Another chronicle has it that Suleiman cut off the head of the architect because he had neglected to include the Cenaculum in tho circuit of the ramparts. Thirty-five feet high and almost three miles in length, tho existing walls once boasted of no less than thirty-five towers. All but one of their eight gates were constructed on the Mohammedan turning at right angles in the wall, thus permitting a loophole fire on attackers. In modern times these angled gates pioved an .almost impossible barrier to vehicles with the result that the St. Stephen’s and Jaffa Gates were altered at about the beginning of the century. Material for the walls was drawn from various sources. Part of it was quarried in the vicinity, and a good deal of it came from Christian buildings in Jerusalem. The only important part of the earlier walls left in the rebuilding was the Golden Gate, a Roman affair, cut straight through the masonry. Fragments of medieval . carving collected from the ruined Christian churches of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem were lavishly used as decorations for the entrances. The walls to the north, west and east were constructed approximately on the site of the earlier ramparts and show in many places the evidence of patching. GATE MADE FOR KAISER.

After the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem had fallen at the close of the thirteenth century the city sank into stagnation under its Egyptian rulers. Not a single building of importance can be traced to Egyptian influence for the next two centuries. When the former Wilhelm 11. of Germany made his visit to the Holy Land a breach was smashed through the walls of Jerusalem in order that he might have his own gate by which to enter. When Allenby’s soldier’s marched in, the work of reconstruction was begun. The historic walls displayed only too clearly tho marks of neglect and decay. Thieving builders had carried away stones from the ramparts in huge quan tities. A brighter aspect came with the appointment of Sir Ronald Storrs as Governor, and the work of repair is now. going steadily ahead.