ledges nor loculi for the dead are anywhere visible, it is evident that these subterranean caverns were not designed for purposes of sepulture. During the Middle Ages the quarries may have been used for burying the dead, but it seems more likely that these skeletons were the remains of people who lost their way amid the labyrinthine passages and, their lights having gone out, died in the dark caverns. What gives this suggestion an appearance of probability is the fact that of late years several amateur explorers, their lights having been extinguished, managed to scramble to the entrance with a narrow escape of their lives.

It seems strange that the very existence of these quarries was unknown to Franks at least for more than three hundred years, and little more than a quarter of a century has elapsed since Dr. Barclay discovered the obscure entrance, and explored their hidden depths. The Arabs call the cavern, Naghara-el-Cotton, that is, "Cotton Grotto," but why so named is unknown, and the natives seem to have been aware of its existence previous to Dr. Barclay's discovery. The city wall standing above the entrance is the work of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I, who built or rebuilt the northern wall of Jerusalem in 1542; and certain indications of masonry at the entrance itself suggest the thought that the mouth of the quarries was built up at the same period. Twenty years before the above date, that is, three hundred and fifty years ago, a Jewish traveller from Italy who visited Jerusalem says :—

"Not far from the Bab-al-Amud (Damascus Gate) is the Cave of Zedekiah, which extends underground to the mountains of Jericho. Several persons told me that they themselves walked a mile in the same. It is so spacious that a man on horseback, with a lance in his hand, can ride through it quite comfortably."

Two centuries before, Mejr-ed-Deen, an Arab writer of the thirteenth century, speaks thus of the subterranean quarries:

Opposite to and south of Zahara, and below the northern gate of the city, is the great oblong excavation called the Maghara-el-Kattan; some say that it extends even below the Sakhra."

These quotations acquaint us with the prevailing opinion in olden times regarding the vastness of these caverns, and lead us to ask what is the real extent of them? The guides speak with mysterious vagueness, and the common idea among the natives is that the excavations extend to the Haram Area. The extent suggested by Captain Warren and the first Engineers of the Palestine Exploration Fund is much too limited, as has been proved by the explorations of Herr Schick.

It ought to be noticed that the Royal Quarries and the Temple Hill belong to the same ridge of rock, and that both are situated immediately to the east of the deep valley that runs north and south through the centre of ancient Jerusalem. The excavations extend towards the south-east, and approach very near to the rock-cut tunnels lately discovered under the Convent of the Sisters

of Zion. The tunnels run close to the northern wall of the Haram; so that there seems nothing extravagant in the idea that in ancient days the Royal Quarries were connected by subterranean passages with the Temple Hill.

It has been suggested that the blocks of stone, after being dressed in the quarry, were taken to the entrance of the cavern, and thence conveyed to the Northern Gate en route for the Temple Hill. Now while this may have been done by Sultan Suleiman I, three hundred years ago, and while the same route may have been in use even in the days of Herod, yet it is manifest that no such road could have been used in the days of King Solomon. The Damascus Gate, which forms the northern gate of the city, is the work of Sultan Suleiman, and occupies the site of the old gateway, and both gateways were built upon the débris that fills up a deep ravine. This depression, known as the Asmoncan Valley, was filled up by the Maccabees; but, being in existence in the days of Solomon, it is highly improbable that the masons of Solomon's time conveyed the massive blocks down into a considerable ravine, and immediately dragged them up the western slope of Mount Moriah. There is reason for supposing that the subterranean caverns, spacious though they be, are only part of the original quarry.

The rugged rock, fifty feet high, on which the city wall now stands, seems to have been scarped for defence or some other purpose. Moreover, a fosse formed by a

cutting in the rock has extended outside the walls from the Damascus Gate as far as the Burg Laklak, or Stork Tower, which stands at the north-east angle of the city wall, and thence the fosse has been continued as far south as St. Stephen's Gate. The fosse opposite the mouth of the Royal Quarries is partly filled up with some thirty or forty feet of rubbish. At a distance of about five hundred feet, looking north, what looks like the counterscarp to the rock on which the wall stands is seen. This counterscarp and cave at its foot is at present known by the name of Jeremiah's Grotto, and although it contains some rock-cut tombs and vaulted sepulchres, it is clearly an old quarry.

The intermediate space between the scarp and counterscarp is covered with a vast accumulation of rubbish, such as stone chippings, and over the top of this débris passes the present road outside the city walls. This rubbish may be from fifty to one hundred feet in depth, so that all the space from the counterscarp at Jeremiah's Grotto to the most southern part of the subterranean caverns has formed at some period one immense quarry.

When it is remembered that nearly the whole city of Edinburgh has been built out of Craig Leith Quarry, and that many a town in England has been built of stone taken from one rock-cut excavation; when, moreover, we reflect upon the immense size of the Jerusalem quarries, we are led to the conclusion that all the stonework of the Holy City, including the Temples of Solomon, Zerubbabel, and Herod, the gigantic walls of the Haram, as

well as the walls encompassing the city, have been excavated from one and the same spot, namely, from the Royal Quarries underneath the north part of the Holy City. This supposition gathers strength from the fact that all the stonework, speaking generally, is of one formation, and corresponds to the hard limestone rock of the aforesaid caves.

Captain Warren, in his work, "Underground Jerusalem," speaking of Solomon's Temple, says :—

"The stones for this great work were brought down from the Royal Quarries under Bezetha, north of the Temple, one entrance to which is still to be seen in the outer wall of the modern city. The Temple of Solomon was built of the beautiful white stone of the country, the hard missae, which will bear a considerable amount of polish."

There is a prevailing notion that the polished blocks of Solomon's Temple were sent by Hiram from Lebanon or Tyre, but such a notion receives no proof either from Josephus or the Bible. It is expressly stated in the Books of both Kings and Chronicles that Solomon requested Hiram to send cedar trees and fir trees from Mount Lebanon. "And Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, I have considered the things which thou sentest to me for, and I will do all thy desire concerning timber of cedar and concerning timber of fir."2

It is also intimated that Hiram, the renowned mason king, sent cunning masons and stone-squarers to help 2 1 Kings v. 8.

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