Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1889-09-05
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soa 4 bishop residence onfthe top Of
can't; n ion, III Tie eenterrof ,Jerusa-
lem W. yAmsricsa typewriter
,,lst2ands "a z within thirty feet Of The great
lsapare tower Of David the base Of
which was undoubtedly builtlbetorS
Christ. at my left, surrounded by
tho yellow stone walls of houses, IS
sthe dark green pool which Hezckiah
made supply the Holy City with
swatersin case OF siege, and beyond
Sit, ont Of the honeycomb Of build
ings, shines the great bronze dome
which stands over the spot on which
Christ was cruciticd, and in which
worship pilgrims from ever quarter
sofSthe Christian world. In front Of
are, not half a mile away, on great
plateau covering thirty-five acres, is
. big octagonai tower with bull
+ bous bronze dome. 1t is the Mosque
of Omar, and it stands on the very
5site Of Solomon's temple, while at
8its left is tho church built Oh the
Roman mosaic floor of tho house Of
Polttius plate. The horizon on all
sides is bounded by hills. Jewnsa-
lem lies in nest III the mountains
Tits built on an irregular plateau,
with valleys about it and steep hills
running straight up from these 70
the city and to the higher hills on
the opposite sides. Around the edge
aoi this plateau runs wall about
thirty feet high and within this is
the Jerusalem of to-day. 1t does
not cover, all told, much more than
the area of q three hundred acre
farm, and good walker can make
the circuit Of its walls in an hour.
LIKE A GREAT HoNEYCOMB.
Sitting, as | am, upon the site of
King David's palace, see the whole
city spread out below me. What a
curious city it is! In my tour of
tho world have found no place so
full of strange sights, of picturesque
characters, and so different in every
particular from every other part Of
the world. Aside from its wonder
fully interesting historical associa-
tions, Jerusalem to-day is Il city Of
itself. Forty thousand people are
packed within it's narrow walls, and
it looks more like great honcycomb
than city.
The houses are piled ono upon
another in all sorts of irregularities,
and if you would take q half section
of land and scatter over the whole
great piles of gigantic store boxes
just as you find them back of a large
store, you might get some idea Of
Jerusalem as it looks to me from
Mount Zion. The houses have no
chimncys, and their stone roofs are
in every case almost flat Many Of
them have little bcchivc domcs ut.
ting out of their center, and if the
town were on n level these domcs
would look like the hay cocks Of Il
great meadow at the time of harvest.
Yellow limestone is the material Of
Jerusalem. The wood used in the
building of the whole city would not
last an American family winter,
and the roofs, walls and floors of
these thousands of houses are of
cold, yellowish white limestone.
Even in the bishops mansion, which
is one of the finest in the city, | get
out of my bed on to stone floor,
and I walk to my breakfast through
stone halls, down stone steps.
There arc no wells in this city of
Jerusalem. All Of the water comes
down in rain, and the trees and gar
dens Of tho town can be numbered on
your fingers. The hills about the
city are almost as barren as those of
New England, and the only foliage
visible is the dark slvcry green of
the olive orchards on the Mount
of Olives and along the hills be-
tween Jaffa and Bethlehem. The
only green to be seen is an acre or
80 of common inside the walls of
the temple plateau, and here and
there housctop which by age has
gathered a coating Of dirt from the
dust of the city and on which the
green grass has sproutcd. Here and
there you see ruined chcars which
arc too dangerous to be inhabited by
the bees of this human hive and on
these the moss and grass grow.
There is one green bushy tree at the
base of Mount Calvary, and a soi-
tary palm looks out over the city
beside the business street named af-
ter King David. 1t is not an at