Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1873-06-02
sOLOMOS,s TEMPLE.

rhl. wonderful Place Of worship
IT'S 0lory and It's fail-lts magni'
fude Unsurpassed - Comparative
niEe and Capacity.
From the Edinburg Roview.l
The skill, the art, the mighty toll that
have been devoted 20 the adornment and
10 the dissertation Of this ancient place
of worship have been Of extraordinary
magnitude. The grandest legacy OF
Egyptian antiquity-the great pyramid
demanded, indeed, larger amount Of
naked human labor; but in Moriah there
Ia compulsion of the features Of nature
herself TO the services Of the builder. In
actual bulk the great pyramid is 10 the
Temple Rock as FIVE TO nine, five descend
hut as far as the stills of the five double
gates of the mountain OF the house. II we
carry the comparison 10 the level at
which the lowest foundation OF the walls
| is laid in the rock at the angles OF the
enclosure, the bulk is three times that Of
the Great Pyramid. The cubic contents
of the mason's work may not amount to
a tenth part Of that piled up by Souphis.
But the hill has been honey.combed with
chambers and galleries; and the declin-
ing part TO the south covered with vaults
and arches, 10 which Gheezen can show
no parallel. No merely artificial struc.
ture could have so successfully resisted
the resolute efforts of the two greatest
military nations Of the ancient world to
destroy its existence and obliterate its
memory. No other monument, long
surviving the era Of Asiatic aud Italian
power, can ever, like the noble Sane.
tuary, mark by its very ruins the sue
cessive periods Of its glory and fall
If we regard not so much the evidence
of the labor devoted to the work OF the
Temple as the effect produced on the
mind by its apparent magnitude, we
NAV suggest the following comparisons:
The length of the Eastern wall Of the
Sanctuary is rather more than double
that of one side of the great Pyramid.
Its height, from the foundation on the
rock at the south, and near the northern
angles, was nearly third of that Of the
Egyptian structure. II to this great
hight of one hundred and ffty-two feet
of solid wall be added the descent Of one
hundred and fourteen feet to the bed OF
the Kedren, and the further elevation Of
one hundred and sixty feet attained by
the pinnacle of the Temple porch, we
have a total hight of four hundred and
twenty-six feet, which is only ffty-nine
less than that of the great Pyramid. The
area of the face Of the eastern wall is
more than double that of one side Of
the Pyramid. Thus the magnitude Of
the noble Sanctuary of Jerusalem far
exceeded that Of any other temple in the
world. Two amphitheaters of the size
of the coliseum would have stood within
its colossal girdle and left room to spare.
The coliseum is said to have seated
eighty thousand spectators, and accom-
nodated twenty-five thousand more in
its arena and passages. For such a
number to have been crammed within
its circle, the space for each person
must have been limited to seventeen by
twenty inches. Allowing two cubits
each way, or four square cubits for each
worshipper in the temple, the Sanctuary
would have contained thirty thousand;
the Chel, excluding the Priests Court,
twenty thousand more, and there would
vet have been room in the great court
and the cloisters to make the total reach
more than two hundred and ten thou
sand