Explorations in Bible lands during the 19th century - H. V. Hilprecht

602 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
stronghold of the Jebusites and the City of David at this
particular place. While the western hill is over a large area
entirely waterless and without a spring of any kind, there
gushes forth at the eastern base of the eastern hill
the copious
perennial St. Mary's Well, as it is now called, which
doubtless corresponds to the ancient Gihon (i Kings I '.33).
The two great problems of the topography of Jerusalem,
with which all other important questions are really more or
less connected, are the questions in regard to the course of
the citv wall and the genuineness of the Church of the Sepulchre.
These are themselves again closely connected with
each other, for the answering of the latter question depends
to a certain degree on the determination of the course of
the wall. The excavations of the English and German
Palestine societies in the last two decades have primarily
had for their object this fixing of the course of the wall.
Neither problem
has yet been solved, but on some important
points certainty has nevertheless been reached by the
past excavations.
The city, as Josephus tells us, was protected by three
walls.
To speak more accurately, the wall on the southern
half was single, the steep slopes of the hills and the deepcut
ravines forming a natural defence for the city. It was
different in
the north, where the plateau of the city connects
with the remaining highland ; here there was always unobstructed
access, on account of which the city on that side
required especially strong fortifications. With the growth
of the city there arose here in the course of time three lines
of wall.
The first wall is the one that ran around the city at the
most remote period. As Nehemiah in rebuilding the wall
kept to the old line, the wall of the pre-exilic city corresponds
to his wall. Through the various excavations the
course of this wall on the southern half has now been completely
established. According to Josephus, it started on