come up; but they were soon repulsed by the exertions of the Franks, and sought security from their encircling walls.
The numbers who have already written on the subject, admonish me to say nothing of the situation and disposition of Jerusalem, nor is it necessary for my narrative to expatiate on such a field. Almost every person is acquainted with what Josephus, Eucherius, and Bede, have said: for who is not aware, that it was called Salem from Melchisedec; Jebus from the Jebusites; Jerusalem from Solomon? Who has not heard how often, falling from adverse war, it buried its inhabitants in its ruins, through the different attacks of Nabugodonosor, of Titus, or of Adrian? It was this last who rebuilt Jerusalem, called Ælia, after his surname, enclosing it with a circular wall, of greater compass, that it might embrace the site of the sepulchre of our Lord, which originally stood without: Mount Sion, too, added to the city, stands eminent as a citadel. It possesses no springs;[1] but water, collected in cisterns, prepared for that purpose, supplies the wants of the inhabitants : for the site of the city, beginning from the northern summit of Mount Sion, has so gentle a declivity, that the rain which falls there does not form any mire, but running like rivulets, is received into tanks, or flowing through the streets, augments the brook Kedron. Here is the church of our Lord, and the temple, which they call Solomon's, by whom built is unknown, but religiously reverenced by the Turks; more especially the church of our Lord, where they daily worshipped, and prohibited the Christians from entering, having placed there a statue of Mahomet. Here also is a church of elegant workmanship, containing the holy sepulchre, built by Constantine the Great, and which has never suffered any injury from the enemies of our faith, through fear, as I suppose, of being struck by that celestial fire which brightly shines in lamps, every year, on the Vigil[2] of Easter. When this miracle had
- ↑ "Jerusalem was possessed only of the torrent of Kedron, dry in summer, and of the little brook or spring of Siloe, (Reland, tom. i. pp. 294, 300). Tacitus mentions a perennial fountain, an aqueduct, and cisterns of rain-water. The aqueduct was conveyed from the rivulet Tekoe, or Etham, which is likewise mentioned by Bohadin, (in Vit. Saladin. p. 238.)" Hardy.
- ↑ It was pretended that the lamps in the church of the Holy Sepulchre were miraculously ignited on Easter Eve.
