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The north-west angle of the Haram esh
Sherif has been cut out of the rock so as to
leave escarpments from three to twenty-three
feet high facing inwards on the north and
west. There is here, in fact, a mass of rock,
about one hundred feet thick, which is
separated from the more northern hill of
Bezetha by a ditch one hundred and sixty-five
feet wide; and from twenty-six to thirty-three
feet deep. Upon the rock stands a Turkish
barrack, the successor, perhaps, of the Tower
of Antonia, which Herod built to "secure and
guard" the Temple. The tower, or castle, was
of great extent, and played an important part
during the siege of Jerusalem by Titus. It was
on a rock fifty cubits high, which was covered
from its foot with smooth stones, like the
lower part of the Tower of David, so that "any
one who would either try to get up or to go
down it might not be able to hold his feet
upon it." There were towers at each corner of
the castle; that at the southeast was seventy
cubits high, that it might overlook the
Temple; and that at the south-west had
passages to the Temple cloisters, by which the
Temple guard went to its post . . . (Source:
Picturesque Palestine, vol. 1, pp. 42-43.) |
