Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-07-04
CURIOSITIES FROM THE HOLY
LAND.

posed of antique relics brought
home by a gentleman who recently
explored Palestine in canoe. He
padded through the Dead Sea, up
the river Jordan, and over the Sea
OF Liberals, and in the rivers ALBANIA
and Pharphar. Specimens of pot
terry, bits of stone, pieces of glass
and scraps of silver form the col
lection. Much of this specimen
rubbish has been obtained from the
Palestine exploration in and abont
erusalem, and as the articles come
deep down fron what are really
now the bowels of the earth, it is
claimed that the levels have been
reached where David walked, and
roads have been found over which
Solomon probably drove with some
of his 400 chariots or rode on one
of his $4,000 riding horses, as he
passed through the town, in com
pany with strange women, to the
fanes which he had erected for the
worship of foreign gods. A Lon
don paper says:
'Iieut Warren, as is we'll known,
has been industriously uncovering
the very roots of the ancient city in
the service of the Palestine Ex-
ploring Society. His subterranean
labors have revealed what may be
called stratified Jewish history. lie
has gone down as much as ninety
feet in one spot; and, at the corner
of the Haram especially, at the
depth of eighty feet, he has dis
closed the foundation stones Of the
cid Temple, standing upon the liv-
ing rock, besides chambers, walls,
aqueducts, cisterns and arches !;
which begin, after incredible toll,
to range themselves into an intelli-
gible plan, revealing to US the real
Jerusalem of the past. Those eX-
cavations have carried back research
indeed, to the days pre-
ceding Solomon, for in one spot
a water course of masonry has
been found passing under the
Temple wall itself; and there are
relics in this exhibition which come
from that very place. The bottom
of the Birket ISrdil, or Pool OF
Bethesda, also contributes to the
collection, as well as the wall Of
Ophel and the Tyropeup Valley
and at the foot of the Southeast
angle of the Great Rampant, which
now sustains the mosques Of Omar
and Akss, have been unveiled stones
bearing letters incised with chlsel
or painted In red. These have beer
studied by Mr.. Deutsch, and de
clared to be the construction marks
of the Ph9nician masOns who bun
the Temple. The fac-similes o
them thus far brought home ar
very much like the first attempts t.
q small boy to make figures upol
his slate; but they are assuredly Q
immense antiquity, and no doub
they represent, as is stated, tn
actual memoranda of the stone
layers of Tyre and Sidon, "wh
took the contract from Solomo.
the King to build his Temple"
Now, as Nebuchadnezzar plur
dered and pillaged and burnt th
city some 2,4O0 years ago, an
swept of the population; and a
although the Temple was afte
wards rebuilt, the city was at time
a prev to different contending PAL
ties, to Egyptian and Greek, as
had been to Chaldean and Persian
and as Antiochus pillaged the cit
r. c. 40, and Apollonius afte
wards burnt and destroyed its wall
it is not probable that many trac
of the footsteps of Solomon are st
left. After this, Jerusalem fiou
ished again to be plundered by K
mans, and swept over by Parthian
and finally, in the latter part Of t
first century, Titus RACED it to t
ground. Josephus says, ct
whole was so Thoroughly lie
elled and dug up that no o
visiting it would believe it had eV
been inhabited" For forty yea
afterwards Jerusalem disappei
from history. Again it emery
from obscurity, and again it W
the scene of carnage and plund
Hadrian obliterated its eXister
and passed a plow over the founC
tons of the Temple. So complet'
were all traces of the city era
Gated, that in process Of time
name was totally forgotten. In ii
it was again an object of attract
for pilgrims, and Jews walled at
walls while Christians wept at
sepulchrc. For several centurie
was undisturbed by war. Long
ter the contest between Pagan
lew had almost been forgotten,
possession WAS disputed by the 5
aeon and Frank, and the CresC
and the Cross waved alterna
from walls which had been bull
modern days Of material which
never served for the tribe OF JAG
Indeed it is scarcely probable
any traces of Jewish times can
be left, even far below the sur
of the earth, other than the
foundations and stones. ...
cd tho oil va