New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-07-02
JERUSALEM AND IT'S RUINS.

The readers of travel in Palestine will
remember with what intense interest they
perused that portion which appertained
to Jerusalem and the events which tran
spired in that holy city during the cen
turies before and after the advent of the
Saviour of the world. There is no city
of ancient times whose localities are sup
posed to be better understood. Its
topography is more obscure by far than
Athens, Alexandria or Rome; and even
Nineveh and Babylon have been more
effectually explored. Very many of the
visitors to Jerusalem have been somewhat
skeptical as to the monkish opinions re-
speeding many of the places which are
pointed out there to pilgrims, who have
sought what they believe to have been
made sacred by the touch and presence
of their Goodman. Those Latin and
Greek priests who hold the sway in the
holy city, separate and apart from the
Mahommedans, have for years pretended
to show to the inquiring tourist the Ecce
Homo arch where Plate brought out
Jesus, hoping thus to appeal to the SYM
pathies of the mob, and hundreds of
other spots and places Immediately con-
nected with the trial, sentence, cruel
fxion, burial and even the resurrection
of Him in whom millions of the human
900 ho1iova op1 tcn uOrchin
For the purpose of obtaining informa-
ton, as well as to determine whether
there was an ancient Jerusalem, as his
tory relates, a society was formed in Eng
land few years ago under the auspices
of Miss Burdett Coutts, entitled the
Palestine Exploration Fund. On the
fifteenth of February, 1867, Captain War
rem, who was selected to take charge Of
the expedition, arrived at Jaffa, and i'm
mediately thereafter proceeded with the
work, the result of which, as far as it has
progressed, has recently been published
in volume of official reports. .
Weare informed that after the sinking
of shaft of from fifty to one hundred
feet in depth, that Captain Warren has
been able to discover the walls and site Of
ancient Jerusalem, which has been COW
cred by the detritus of centuries. The
first operations were commenced on the
western wall, at point near what is
known as Wilson's arch. 1t receives this
name from the fact that it was first dis
covered by Captain Wilson, who had not
the means to prosecute any mining oper-
atoms. Captain Warrens explorations
proved this arch to be one of series
forming a viaduct which led from the
Temple toward the palace of Herod, on
the western hill, and constituting perhaps
the very bridge across which Jesus was
conducted from PLATE to Herod on the
day of his trial. The remains of wind
ing aqueduct cut in the solid rock be-
meath the bridge, were also discovered.
Part of the bridge has fallen and broken
and buried the aqueduct in its fall; and
the original pavement of the ancient
road in the valley itself is now forty-fve
feet below the present surface formed by
the ruins of ancient walls. A perfect
network of subterranean chambers was
also disclosed, some of which were pro-
badly used for the storage of food, and
others as aqueducts and cisterns. Along
the southern wall Captain Warren found
double pavement, one twenty-three, the
other forty-three feet below the present
surface of the ground. Here he also
found some curious remains both of He
brew and Christian origin.
At depth of seventy-nine feet from
the present surface he commenced the ex-
ploration of what was called the bottom
less pit, which, upon investigation, was
found to be six feet deep. Upon entering
it there was disclosed subterranean pas
sage, perhaps originally constructed to
carry off the overflow from the temple,
and the intrepid investigator crawled on
his hands and feet four hundred feet
along this Shiny drain through the mud,
the passage, at times, becoming so narrow
that he could barely squeeze through, and
the air so foul as to threaten suffocation.
The investigations for the eastern and
northern walls have been attended with
the like interesting results. Along the
northern wall there were some important
discoveries of Phenician characters upon
some of the stones, and of remains of an
cient pottery in the debris, as well as OF
some subterranean passages, but they
have not yet been pushed to satisfactory
contamination. Enough, however, has
been done by Captain Warren's explora-
tons to indicate the course of the walls OF
ancient Jerusalem ; to demonstrate that
the description given by Josephus of the
immense height of the temple above the
valleys Of the Kedron and Jehosaphat.
And the whole result more than confirms
the ideas of Jewish architectural grandeur
which the books of the Bible and the
pages of Josephus combine to give, but
which have hitherto been regarded by
many as apocryphal.
There are other interesting details Of
discoveries made by Captain Warren, as
stated in his very interesting report, and
as further investigations are deemed
necessary to accomplish the perfect de-
valonmant of the recoyery of Jerr 81 lem