CHAPTER VI
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DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM.
THE GREAT CITY OF JERUSALEM.
Her birth and nativity is of the land of Canaan. The father or founder of Jerusalem was an Amorite, and the mother a Hittite.(Ezekiel xvi. 3.) Amorite, the fourth son of Canaan, and Hittite, the descendants of Ham, the third son of Canaan, (Genesis x. IChronicles i.,) a colored people. Glorious things were spoken of this holy city. This noted city was built on two mountains, and contained two parts, called upper and lower city; the former was built on Mount Sion, and the latter on Mount Acra. This city is supposed to have been founded by Melchisedec, and then called Salem or Solyma.
The splendid walls of Jerusalem were very high and broad. The most of this city was surrounded with three walls. In some places, where it was deemed inaccessible, it had only one wall. The wall first built was adorned and strengthened with sixty towers; fourteen towers rested on the middle wall; ninety towers rested on the inside wall, and was most remarkable for its workmanship and grandeur.
The tower Psephina was most celebrated. It was seventy cubits high, had eight angles, and commanded a most beautiful prospect. Here the visitor might, in a clear atmosphere, delight himself with a view of the Mediterranean forty miles to the west, and of most of the Jewish dominions in Arabia and Africa. Some of these towers were nearly ninety cubits high, and famous for their beauty, elegance and curiosities. They were built of white marble, and had the appearance of vast marble blocks. These huge piles gave to the city, in the view of the adjacent country, a most majestic appearance. Near the highest of these
