The Sun.
London, England, 1867-09-26 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sin,—Herewith I hand you two further letters
from Lieut. Warren, R.E., in charge of the survey-
ing and exploring operations of the Palestine Ex-
ploration Fund at Jerusalem, which I shall be much
obliged by your kindly inserting in The Sun. The
second of the two is a duplicate of that which, in his
former communication, Mr. Warren stated had been
" buried at es-Salt."

lam very desirous to draw the attention of the
public to these communications, from which they
will gain some idea of the nature and extent of the
operations of the society, and by which I trust they
may be induced to contribute liberally to its sup-
port.—Your obedient servant,
GEORGE GROVE, Hon. Sec.
Sydenham, Sept. 24.

" Jerusalem, Sept. 2, 1867.
"My dear Sir,-1 send by Corporal Phillips
(who left here on Friday week) an account of the
excavations, to he posted at Alexandria. I send
now some sketches and plans which I had not then
time to get ready. You will be very much inte-
rested in the Wall of Ophel, and I am now making
arrangements to excavate between the tower and the
furthest point to the S.W. exposed, where I think
another tower may exist.

" I am also excavating about 30ft. in front of the
single gate to the south, and have arrived at what
appears to be a passage leading north. I commenced
this excavation under the impression that there is
likely to be a gateway under the single gate leading

into the supposed lower vaults. As soon as we ar

rive at the rock we shall drive a gallery up to the

laram wall.

"1 am also excavating near the Golden Gate,
where a fellah says he found a tower, which may
possibly be the remains of steps ; but it is too far

•
north for the remains of the .Red Heifer-bridge,
which appears to have been a wooden bridge sup-

ported on pillars, just sufficient, I should imagine,
to keep it off the ground, as it is impossible there

could have been pillars 100 ft. high. I was quite

sceptical about the existence of such a bridge until
within the last fortnight, but the Mishna is so
•-xplicit about it that I have taken the matter up in

earnest. I have already excavated to a depth of
about 20ft. below the present east side of the Hararn
Area, where there are two stones bulging out—

something like the springing of an arch—with no
result. The bridge I think must have commenced
from a point GOOft. north of the south-east angle.

The graves are in the way there, and I cannot dig

Do send the gallery frames out as soon as possible ;
there is no wood to be got in Palestine. I have

sent to Malta for 50 frames, but they will only help

us on a little.

" I told you that at the bottom of shaft No. 1, Ty-
ropeon Valley, we had come to the drain with a stream
of water running through it. lam getting suspicious
about this stream. Its flow is too constant to come
from the baths, and it is not the waste from
Solomon's Pools, it must be from a spring at the
top of the Tyropceon Valley. This will engage my
attention.

4, I have made what I consider to be a very im-
portant discovery—viz., an ancient aqueduct,
south-east of the south-east corner of the Ccenacu-

lum, and about 50ft. above the present aqueduct
I have no doubt the original aqueduct from the
Solomon's Pools to the Haram Area. We dug out
the earth from a cut stone shaft 2ft. square, and at
16ft. was a channel running from the west to the
north-east, precisely similar in construction to the
passages under the Triple Gate. It varies very
much in size ; sometimes we could crawl on hands
and knees, then we had to creep sideways, again we
lay on our backs and wriggled along, but still it was
always large enough for a man of ordinary dimen-
sions. In parts built of masonry, in parts cut out
of solid rock, it is generally of a semi-cylindrical
shape; but in many parts it has the peculiar
shoulders which I have only seen under the Triple
Gateway, but which I told you in my last letter had
been noticed by Mr. Eaton in the channel leading
towards Tekoah. To north-east we traced the
channel for 250 ft., until we were stopped by a shaft
which was filled with earth ; to the west we traced
it for 200 ft., till it was stopped in the same manner.
In part of this passage we could stand upright, it
being 10ft. or 12ft. high, with the remains of two
sets of stones for covering, as shown by Mr. Piazzi
Smyth's work on the Great Pyramid ; the stones at
the sides being of great size-12ft. by 6ft. This
channel cannot be so late as the Romans ; it is evi-
dently of most ancient construction. It is built in
little spaces, as if the work had been commenced at
two or three points, and had not been directed pro-
perly. The plaster is still in good preservation. I
shall have the passage cleared out, if possible, as
far as the city walls. I presume it goes into the
Karam at a slightly higher level than the present
aqueduct ; if so, by following it we may arrive at
some very interesting conclusions as to the original
method of supplying the Temple with water.
" This channel must have been of great conse-
quence, in olden times, both from the distance it is
driven under ground, and from the well cut shafts
which lead to it. I think the question is to be
hazarded whether the supply of Jerusalem was not
obtained by this aqueduct, which is quite concealed
from au enemy.—Very truly yours,
" G. Grove, Esq." " CHARLES WARREN.
COPY OF LETTER LOST AT ES-SALT.
" Ain Hetnar, Aug. 4, 1867.
"My dear Sir,—On returning from the plain of
Philistia I found the works of excavation at a stand-
still, and as I had no more photography to do near
the city, I considered it better to make a trip to
Engedi and then to Jerash, so as not to be waiting
idle until I should hear from you. I consider that
the heavy expenses of these trips will be covered in
six mouths by the sale of photographs of places, of
which such views have never been taken before. I
will send a list of what have been taken already, and
I hope that soon the ruins of Jerash will be added to
the number. We left Jerusalem on the 17th ult.,
under the guidance of Sheikh Goblan, and, crossing
the Jordan opposite Ninarin, came up to Nebbeh by
Heshbon. I think there is little doubt about Nebbeh
being the height of Nebo, as I came upon the ruins
of an extensive fort and town about a mile west of
Nebbeh, of the same name; and north of both, run-
ning west, is a deep wady, with a spring, named Ain
Musa (Spring of Moses). On the other side of Neb-
beh is another spring. 1 have also fixed the position
of Main, which is generally described as being near
Heshbon. 1 found it about 10 miles to the south, on
Wady Zerka. I went about a mile further down the
Zerka, but being al..leady on the ground of another
tribe Goblan reused to go cal, prorai4iiag to take us