3-021-501 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Explorations at Jerusalem: gallery at the south-east corner of Haram Wall, 1869. 'At the south-east corner of the Haram Wall, many very large stones are to be seen above the present surface of the ground...Our Illustration represents the second course of stones, and the top of the first course is seen. They are sunk into the solid rock, which had been cut out to receive them, but there was a depth of other matter above the rock to be dug through by the builders of this wall. This lower stratum is quite different from the vast mass of debris above it, yet it indicates a previous population, for it is also composed of debris, with broken fragments of pottery...That it was dug through for the foundation of the wall is evidenced in this way. In digging the gallery close to the wall, Lieutenant Warren found "chippings" of stone...A few feet from the wall the soil contains none of these chippings, which indicates that they had been thrown in by the masons at the time when the wall had been carried up to the then level of the earth. The stones forming the wall beneath are similar to those seen above ground, all beautifully squared, and bevelled round the margin; they fit so close that it is still uncertain whether mortar was used to join them'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.