Note 29 — Chapter I · EXPLORATIONS IN JUDEA.

For those who are unfamiliar with the methods of professional surveyors, it is perhaps well here to state distinctly that the professional opinion as to the level of the rock throughout the city and the Temple area does not depend on “imaginary contours,” but on a large number of observations of level. The rock base of the mountains is fixed in seventy-five places throughout the Temple area, and in more than 120 other places in the city by excavations, where it is not seen on the surface. In some of the most important parts long sections were visible in the great reservoirs recently excavated. On the little Ophel spur alone fifty such measurements were taken by Sir Charles Warren, besides the 200 above mentioned. There is thus no doubt in the mind of any one who knows these facts as to the position of the hills and depth and width of the ancient valleys; and the imaginary gully which some theorists have drawn on their maps to suit the requirements of their version of Josephus’ account has decidedly no existence.

The south-east corner of the Temple was the most important to fix, in view of conflicting theories. It was at this corner that the Ophel wall joined the “eastern cloister of the Temple” (Josephus, V. Wars, iv. 2). Sir Charles Warren found this wall joining the east wall of the Haram at the present south-east angle of the Haram, and thus appears to have set the question at rest, if Josephus’ account is to be received. This question is fully treated in Conder’s Handbook to the Bible, pp. 366-368, third edition.