Page:Buried cities and Bible countries (1891).djvu/221

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
JERUSLAEM.
209

lanes are narrow, dirty, and ill-paved. There are, however, some beautiful bits of architecture; there are the grand walls of the temple area; and there is, above all, the intense interest of its Scriptural associations.

Entering the city by the Jaffa Gate we find on our right the citadel, with the so-called Tower of David. The street right before us is now called the Street of David, and descends eastward to the principal entrance to the Haram. Another main street commences at the Damascus Gate and traverses the city from north to south, passing near the eastern end of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and through the principal bazaar, and terminating a little eastward of the Zion Gate. These two streets divide the city into four quarters. The north-east is the Moslem quarter, the north-west the Christian quarter, the south-west the Armenian, and the south-east the Jewish. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is, of course, in the Christian quarter, where also we have the Latin Convent, very conspicuous from its lofty position near the north-west angle of the city. In the Moslem quarter is the Serai or palace, and most of the Consulates, and the beautiful little Church of St Anne. The Armenian Convent, the largest building in the city, occupies a noble site on the south-western hill. Near it, on the north, is the English church. But by far the most remarkable and striking building in this quarter of the city is the Citadel, whose massive towers loom heavily over all around them. The Jewish quarter has no structure of note with the exception of the new synagogues.

Jerusalem is not like Damascus, where the Moslem religion and oriental customs are almost unmixed with any foreign element, but is a city in which every form of religion and every nationality of east and west are represented at one time. "So motley a crowd" (says Major Conder) "as that which is presented daily in David Street and in the market-place under David's Tower, is perhaps