We will now proceed to a survey of the city itself. The whole _terrain_ slopes sensibly in an easterly direction; its highest point is at the north-western angle of the walls; but between this position and the highest part of Sion to the south the difference of level is not so great as to forbid us to conjecture that it was originally one hill. The accumulations of soil have so much altered the surface of the ground that it is impossible to recognize ancient localities in the modern city without making excavations: this I have done to an extent that enables me to speak confidently on the point. Believing that in an undertaking of this kind it is useless to form an opinion without an accurate investigation of the soil and a careful study of the subject, I could not be content to remain merely a few days in the country.
Modern Jerusalem does not occupy the whole of the space covered by the ancient city in the days of Herod; the greater part of Mount Sion (to the south) being excluded, as it has been since the time when Hadrian rebuilt the city under the name of _Ælia Capitolina_. The agreement between the descriptions of the town, given by William of Tyre, James of Vitri, Brocardus and many others in the middle ages, and those of modern writers, shews that its limits have not since undergone any changes. The wall, which now surrounds the city, was built from the foundations at that time, and only restored in some parts by order of Sultan Solyman the Magnificent, son of Selim I. in 1534, as declared by the inscriptions over the gates[23]. This wall is not of uniform height, but varies from thirty-six to forty-two feet. Its thickness also varies in different parts, from four to five and five and a half feet. The whole wall is crowned by battlements, and makes a great number of angles; of these there are more on the south than on the north; while on the east it forms nearly a straight line, and on the west, two segments, meeting in a very obtuse angle at the Jaffa gate. Here rise some towers[24], and the old fortress, called the Castle of David[25]. This constitutes the feeble nucleus of the fortification of the city, and is of no importance whatever in the present state of military science. The form of the city is an irregular trapezium, the longest side of which is the north, the next the south; the east is shorter than either of the former, the west the shortest of all.