the sixteenth century. A portion of this edifice was assigned by King Baldwin II. in A. D. 1119 to a new order of knights; who from this circumstance took the name of the Knights Templars.2 The accounts we have of this structure are not very distinct. The king himself would seem to have dwelt in it; whence perhaps the appellation palace; and it very probably had many side-buildings, and was more extensive than the present mosk el-Aksa.3 The Templars built a wall before the Mihrab or niche of prayer; and used this part of the building as a granary.

In A. D. 1187, the celebrated Egyptian Sultan Salâh ed-Dîn (Saladin) became master of Jerusalem; and the order of things was again reversed. The sacred precincts of the temple fell back once more to the uses of Islam; the golden cross upon the lofty dome was cast down and dragged along the ground, and the crescent elevated in its place; the erections and ornaments of the Christians were all removed; and the edifices purified throughout with rose-water brought for the occasion from Damascus. The voice of the Mu'edh-dhin was again heard proclaiming the hour of prayer; and Saladin himself was present in a solemn assembly, and performed his devotions in both the mosks es-Sukhrah and el-Aksa.5 From that time onward to the present day, the precincts of the ancient temple, with one slight exception, have remained in the hands of the Muslims; and seem to have expe

1) Brocardus calls it Palatium Regis, c. 8; Marinus Sanutus Templum Salomonis, Secret. fidel. Cruc. III. 14.9. Breydenbach and Fabri speak of it in A. D. 1483 as Porticus Salomonis, Reissb. des h. Landes, pp. 111, 251. So too Rud. de Suchem in the 14th century, and Baumgarten A. D. 1507, p. 86.

2) Will. Tyr. XII. 7. Jac. de

Vitr. c. 65. Comp. Benjamin of
Tudela, I. p. 87, ed. Baratier.

3) Jac. de Vitriaco describes it as being "immensae quantitatis et amplitudinis." c. 62.

4) Reinaud Extr. des Historiens Arabes, 1829, p. 215.

5) Wilken Gesch. der Kreuzz. III. ii. p. 311, seq. Reinaud Extr. des Historiens Arabes, 1829, p. 214, seq.

rienced no important changes, except such as are incidental to the lapse of time.

The rock es-Sukhrah beneath the great dome, with the excavated chamber under it, is one of the most venerated spots of Muslim tradition and devotion. Even the Christians of the middle ages regarded it as the stone on which Jacob slept when he saw the vision. of angels; and also as the spot where the destroying angel stood, when about to smite Jerusalem for the sin of David. Some regarded it likewise as having existed anciently under the most holy place of the Jewish temple; and as still containing in itself the ark and other sacred things. The followers of Muhammed have loaded this rock with legends respecting their prophet; until it has become in their eyes second alone to the sacred Ka'beh of Mecca. Their writings are full of the praises of the Sukhrah and of Jerusalem. Even the false prophet himself is reported to have said: "The first of places is Jerusalem, and the first of rocks is the Sukhrah;" and again: "The rock esSukrah at Jerusalem is one of the rocks of Paradise."3 The mosk el-Aksa is perhaps even more respected. Indeed the two are regarded as forming together one great temple; which, with their precincts, is now commonly called el-Haram esh-Sherif; but which in earlier Arabian writers bears the general name of Mesjid el-Aksa, "the remotest" of the holy places, in distinction from Mecca and Medina. This grand

1) Gen. xxviii. 11, seq. 2 Sam. xxiv. 16. Phocas de Locis Sanct. xiv. Will. Tyr. VIII. 3, fin.

2) Albert. Aq. VI. 24. p. 281. Fulcher. Carn. c. 18. p. 397.-Has this stone perhaps any connection with that mentioned by the Itiner. Hieros. in A. D. 333, near the two statues of Adrian? "Est non longe de statuis lapis pertusus, ad quem veniunt Judaei singulis annis, et unguent eum, et lamentant se

cum gemitu, et vestimenta sua scindunt, et sic recedunt."

3) Hist. of Jerusalem by Mejr ed-Din, Fundgr. des Orient. II. p. 384. See also the account of two Arabic MSS. of similar import, in the Royal Library at Paris; Notices et Extraits des MSS, etc. Tom. III. pp. 605, 610.

4) The Jami'a el-Aksa is the mosk alone; the Mesjid el-Aksa is the mosk with all the sacred en

temple or mosk they regarded as the largest in the world, except that at Cordova in Spain.'

The walls around, and even the ground itself, bear evidence of being in part composed of the materials of former structures. Fragments of marble columns and masses of rubbish are visible in places where the ground is turned up or the sward broken; and the famous seat of Muhammed, where he is to sit and judge the world, is nothing more than the broken shaft of a column, built in horizontally across the upper part of the eastern wall, instead of a square stone. Being longer than the thickness of the wall, it projects somewhat externally and overhangs the Valley of Jehoshaphat; thus affording an occasion for the legend.3 Other similar fragments are seen in various parts of the wall.

We heard much of the large reservoirs or cisterns which are said to exist under the surface of the Haram; and which have been often mentioned by travellers. The Muslim worship, with its many ablutions, requires an abundant supply of water in or near the mosks; and the construction of cisterns was here almost a matter of course. The ancient subterranean

closure and precincts, including the Sukhrah. Thus the words Mesjid and Jami'a differ in usage somewhat like the Greek ἱερόν and ναός. See Hist. of Jerus. in Fundgr. des Or. II. p 93. Comp. Ibn el-Wardi, in Abulf. Syria, ed. Köhler, p. 180.

1) Ibn el-Wardi, l. c. Edrîsi, p. 343, ed. Jaubert.-The most complete oriental account of the Haram is in the History of Jerusalem by Mejr ed-Dîn, already so often quoted, Fundgr. des Or. II. pp. 81, 118, 375. V. p. 157. Less important is the History of the Temple by Jelâl ed-Din, translated by Reynolds, Lond. 1836. See also Ali Bey's Travels, Vol. II. c. 16. p.

214, seq. Richardson's Travels, II. p. 285, seq. Bonomi in Hogg's

3) Bonomi in Hogg's Visit to Alexandria, etc. pp. 282, 283.

4) Niebuhr Reisebeschr. Bd. III. Anh. p. 141. Ali Bey’s Travels, II. p. 226.-So Tacitus describes the ancient temple as having within its enclosure "piscinae cisternaeque servandis imbribus ;" Hist. V. 12. Comp. Aristaeus in Appendix to Havercamp's Josephus, Vol. II. p. 112. So too the Itin. Hieros. A. D. 333, speaks thus of the site of the temple: "Sunt ibi excepturia magna aquae subterraneae et piscinae magno opere aedificatae."

vaults in this quarter, appear to have been in part used for this purpose. These cisterns are filled, as in the private houses of the city, partly by rain-water from the roofs of the buildings; and partly also by the aqueduct which brings water from Solomon's Pools. At the time of our visit, this was dry. Between the mosks es-Sukhrah and el-Aksa there is a marble basin or fountain, bordered with olive, orange, and cypresstrees; apparently connected with the tank or cistern described here in the times of the crusaders, which had a basin and a dome supported by columns, and furnished water for the besieged and their cattle.' In the lower part of the city, around the enclosure of the mosk, are several public fountains of Muslim construction, which appear once to have been fed from the cisterns of the Haram; but they have long ceased to flow.

The spacious crypts or vaults, which are known to exist beneath the mosk el-Aksa and the southern part of the enclosure, are a matter of intense interest; and we may hope that the time is not far distant, when they will become more accessible to a complete examination. They are mentioned by travellers, who heard of them as early as the fifteenth century.2 An Arabian writer of about the same age speaks of a structure beneath the mosk, which was called the "ancient temple," and was referred to Solomon on account of its massive architecture.3 In A. D. 1697, Maundrell appears to have seen these vaults, and describes them as extending one hundred feet or more under Mount Moriah on the South side, and con

1) Albert. Aq. VI. 22, in Gesta Dei P. 280.

2) Breydenbach, A.D. 1483, relates that they could contain 600 horses; Reissb. p. 111. Fabri in the same year, says, they were held to have been the stables of Solomon; and he entered them

through a hole in the outer wall; ibid. p. 279. Baumgarten in A. D. 1507 heard of them as spacious and magnificent, and capable of receiving many thousand men; Peregrinatio, p. 86.

3) History of Jerusalem, etc. Fundgr. des Or. II. p. 95.

sisting of columns of a single stone, each four feet in diameter, and arched over with very large stones. How he can have seen these from the outside, from any point within the city-wall, is to me inexplicable; unless there may have been at the time a breach in the wall. At present there is no trace of any door or entrance on this part. A few small holes or windows high up, are all the openings now visible. So far as I know, the only Frank travellers who have been permitted to descend into the vaults from within, are Richardson in 1818, and Messrs. Bonomi, Catherwood and Arundale in 1833.2 The usual entrance from above is at the S. E. corner of the enclosure, where a flight of steps leads down to "a square subterraneous chamber, in the middle of which, laid on the floor, is a sculptured niche" in the form of à sarcophagus, with a canopy above. This is called the cradle of Jesus. "From this chamber," Mr. Bonomi says, "we descended a staircase to a spacious crypt, or series of vaults, extending beneath a considerable portion of the enclosure.-These noble substructions consist entirely of Roman arches of large dimensions and admirable workmanship, probably of the age of Herod."3 Richardson remarks, that the stones of which the square columns are composed, are five feet long and are bevelled at the ends and corners; they are disintegrated, and have a much older appearance than the arches which they support.*

1) Maundrell's Journey, etc. Apr. 5. De Bruyn (le Brun) appears to speak of the same vaults a few years before. He calls them the Temple of the Presentation; they were under a mosk and could be seen only with lights; Voyage,

etc. p. 262.

2) Richardson's Travels, II. p. 308, seq. Bonomi in Hogg's Visit

to Alexandria, etc. II. p. 281, seq.
Ali Bey also heard of the vaults,
but did not visit them; Travels II.
p.
227.

3) Bonomi, 1. c. II. pp. 281, 282. I have since had the pleasure of receiving from Mr. Bonomi himself a full confirmation of the account given in the text.

4) Travels, II. pp. 309, 310.