The rock rises with a steep gradient towards the north, so that at St. Stephen's Gate, only two hundred feet north of the tower, the rock is only twenty feet below the surface. It falls rapidly past the tower, and the foundation under the south angle is one hundred and ten feet deep. It still continues to descend rapidly, until it reaches the bed of a ravine at a point twenty paces south of the tower, and at the enormous depth of one hundred and twenty-five feet below the present surface. The foundations of the tower are laid upon the rock, and an excavation of the buried masonry shows that in the lower depths the so-called Castle of Antonia is merely a part of the main east wall; for the masonry north and south is flush with the face of the tower. The wall rises upwards from the rock in an unbroken mass for about fifty feet at the south side of the tower, and sixty-three feet above the bed of the ravine. The blocks here have marginal drafts, and very rough faces, projecting as they do from twelve to twenty-four inches. They have a curious appearance, and are altogether different in character from the rough-faced stones found in other parts of the Sanctuary wall. In the rough-faced masonry a strong batter is formed by each course being set back four inches behind the edge of the course below, and this batter must give strength and solidity to the sustaining foundations.

On the third course from the rock, and above one hundred feet below the surface, some Phoenician characters were seen painted in red colour on the surface of one

of the stones. In one character a trickling of the paint was seen on the upper side, and this fact shows that the characters were painted before the stone was placed in its present position.

The rough-faced masonry rises up from the rock in an unbroken mass to a height of fifty feet above the foundations of the south end of the castle, but at that elevation a complete change takes place in the character of the masonry. At this height, which corresponds with the top of the fifteenth course of stones, the development of the tower proper begins. This is effected by setting back the courses of the wall from four to seven inches, while each succeeding course in the face of the castle is set back little more than an inch, so that when the surface is reached, which is sixty feet higher, the tower has a clear projection of seven feet from the wall.

The stones, moreover, which form the face of the tower, beginning with the seventeenth course, have marginal drafts and fine-dressed faces, like those at the Wailing Place; while the stones in the wall proper have rough projecting faces from the foundation to the surface, and the style of masonry probably extends underground from the Castle of Antonia to the Golden Gate. The rock in the bed of the ravine, above alluded to, is about one hundred and twenty-six feet below the present surface outside the wall; and as the ground of the Haram Area here is thirteen feet higher, it follows that the immense deposits of rubbish in this quarter go

down to the enormous depth of about one hundred and forty feet.

It now appears from recent excavations that a valley extended from the closed portal of Bab az Zahire, or Gate of Flowers, in the northern wall of the city, in a south-eastern direction, and passing through the socalled Pool of Bethesda, which occupies a section of valley, it next crossed the ground at present forming the north-east section of the Noble Sanctuary.

Immense deposits of rubbish must have been made to raise the vast platform of the Haram to its present height, which, as already noticed, is about one hundred and forty feet above the bed of the ravine. The so-called Castle of Antonia is built on the northern slope of this valley, and not only does the main east wall cross the ravine, but the wall extending westwards from the tower, and forming the northern wall of the Haram, has also crossed another section of the same valley.

The rubbish passed through in the shafts sunk at the north-east corner is composed for the most part of red earth, stone chippings mixed with fragments of pottery, and near the rock a layer of dark earth. In the deepest shaft, at a depth of above one hundred feet, some rude

some pieces of

tessera were found, and even below this pottery were picked up by the Engineers. The masonry of the tower is composed of stone which for the most part is not so hard and compact as that at the south-east angle, and the chisel work is inferior to that found in some parts of the Sanctuary wall.