Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1873-05-01
Helena, Montana, Thursday, May I, 1873.
The Recovery Of Jerusalem.

The Edinburgh Recieao has an article on
"The Recovery of Jerusalem" briefly re.
viewing the results of recent explorations in
that city. The writer thus speaks of the
magnitude of Solomon's Temple:
The skill, the art, the mighty toll, that have
been devoted to the adornment, and to the
desecration, of this most ancient place of
worship, have been of. extraordinary magni-
tude. The grandest legacy of Egyptian an
tiquity, the Great Pyramid, demanded, in
deed, a larger amount of naked human labor
but in Moriah there is compulsion of the
features of Nature herself to the service OF
the builder. In actual bulk, the Great Pyra-
mid is to the Temple rock as five to nine, if
we descend but as far as the sills of the five
double gates of the Mountain Of the house.
If we carry the comparison down to the level
at which the lowest foundation of the walls
is in]aid in the rock at the angles of the in
closure, the bulk is three times that of the
Great Pyramid. The cubic contents Of the
mason's work may not amount to tenth part
of that piled up by Souphis. But the hill has
been honcycombed with chambers and gal
lerics; and the declining part to the south
covered with vaults and arches, to which
Gizeh can show no parallel. No merely arti-
fcial structure could have SO successfully
resisted the resolute efforts of the two greatest
military nations of the ancient world to de-
stroy its existence and obliterate its memory.
No other monument, long surviving the era
of Asatic and Italian power can ever, like
the noble Sanctuary, mark by its very ruins,
the successive periods of its glory and its fall!
If we regard not so much the evidence of the
labor devoted to the work of the Temple us
the effect produced ON the mind by its ap-
parent magnitude, we may suggest the fol
lowing comparisons:
The length of the eastern wall of the Sane
tuary 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 the Egyptian structure. If to this great
height of 152 feet of solid wall be added the
descent of ia feet to the bed of the Kedron,
and the further elevation of 1GO feet attained
by the pinnacle of the Temple porch, we
have total height of 426 feet which is only
Sc feet 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 pyra-
mid. Thus the magnitude of the Noble
Sanctuary Of Jerusalem far exceeded that of
any other temple in the world. Two anlphi-
theatres of the size of the Coliseum would
room to spare. The Coliseum is said to havD
seated $1,000 spectators, and accommodated
22, 600 more in it's arena and passages. For
such number to have been crammed within
its circle, the space for each person must
have been limited to 17x20 inches. Allowing
two cubits each way, or four square cubits
for each worshipper in the temple, the Sanctu-
ary would haye contained 10000; the Chel,
excluding the Priests Court, 10000 more,
and there would yet have been room in the
Great Court and the clOisters to make the
total reach to more than 100000.