The plan further shows that the ground rises again north of the valley, and forms a small knoll in the neighbourhood of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, with a second valley head to the east. This knoll is actually fifty feet lower than the top of the southern hill, and, from the lie of the ground, it appears to be still lower than it really is. The second valley on the east of the knoll separates off a third hill now occupied by the Mohammedan quarter of Jerusalem, and this is divided from the Temple Hill, of which it is really a part, by the rock-cut trench forty feet deep, hewn on the north side of the scarp, which I have endeavoured to show was the Castle of Antonia. The third hill is lower again by fifty feet than the knoll last mentioned.
I do not see how we can hesitate in applying to this "rock siteâ the names given by Josephus. The southern, higher, and larger hill must be the Upper City, the "Mountain Fortâ of Zion; the knoll north of it is Acra (which is identified by the Septuagint Version with Millo), the site of the Lower City; the broad valley between is the Tyropoeon; the second valley is the Hasmonean; the third hill is Bezetha, north of the Temple.
The existence of the narrow saddle at the head of the valley, as will shortly appear, is an important indication. The fact is proved by no less than ten distinct observations, made in sinking the foundations of three large buildings, and the rock is here found to be slightly higher than the top of the Acra knoll.
The conformation of ground in Jerusalem is not radically different, even now, from that existing before the rubbish accumulated. David Street is indeed forty feet above the bed of the Tyropoeon, but it still is reached from the southern hill by a steeply sloping street with steps. The ground falls away east of the Acra knoll to the Hasmonean Valley on somewhat the same line which the rock beneath it follows, and it again rises into the third hill on the north-east. Thus any observer from the roofs will see in modern Jerusalem a very fair reproduction of the ancient city beneath; the main features are the same, but the differences of level, in the hills and valleys, are less marked.
Such being the rock site, Josephus's description of the walls is easily followed. The first wall embraced only the Upper City, and in its north-west corner were the Royal Towers, which formed the fortress of that part of the town. The north line of the wall is that most important to define, and it can scarcely be doubted that a line from David's Tower (where Hippicus and its two companions are placed in almost every plan) towards the Haram will represent the First Wall. Remains of towers have been found along this line, and, as above noticed, it is the line of the northern crest of the hill of the Upper City. As to this there is but little dispute between various authorities, nor is there any radical difference of opinion as to the line on the south and west sides of the Upper City. The valuable excavations made in 1874 by Mr. Maudslay have thoroughly opened up the great scarp which formed the south-west corner of ancient Jerusalem. Captain Warren's adventurous shafts have shown where the great wall joined the Temple. The line between these points might be traced without much difficulty, by simply following out the work already done.