his officers, and a crowd of spectators; and the ceremony is accompanied with music, bonfires, illuminations, and every demonstration of joy.

LI. PRESENT STATE of JERUSALEM.

1. HE celebrated city of Jerusalem stands about thirty miles east of the Mediterranean, on a rocky mountain, with steep ascents on all sides, except on the north. It does not occupy the same ground as the ancient city, for the hill of Sion which used to be included, is now without the city, and Mount Calvary, which was formerly without the city, became so much reverenced after the crucifixion of our Saviour, as gradually to draw the inhabitants and pilgrims around it, and it is now near the centre of the city.

2. Jerusalem was formerly much larger than at present. It is now about three miles in circumference, inclosed with walls of no great strength, and having six gates. The private buildings are poor, the streets narrow and crooked, and containing the ruins of ancient edifices. The whole is thinly inhabited, and it contains much unoccupied ground.

3. A Turkish officer resides in the city, to collect a tribute, protect the pilgrims and preserve peace. Great numbers of pilgrims resort annually to this city, to perform their devotions at the holy sepulchre. This is upon Mount Calvary, where a church is erected for the accommodation of pilgrims. The Latins have the exclusive right to say mass in the holy sepulchre, but other Christians have the privilege of entering it for their private devotions.

4. The sepulchre was formerly under ground, but the rock is hewed away at the sides, so as to leave the sepulchre in the form of a little chapel, above ground. It is a sort of grotto hewn out of a solid rock, about eight feet square, and lined with white marble. The entrance is by an opening of three feet high, and two feet wide. From regard to the sanctity of the place, every person who enters must be bare footed. In this tomb, lamps are kept continually burning. On the outside, the chapel is surrounded by ten beautiful pillars of white marble, adjoining the wall, and sustaining a cornish.

5. Jerusalem stands on a rugged barren soil, remote from any sea port or great road, and is almost destitute of water. The present inhabitants are estimated at about four

teen thousand, Christians, Jews and Mahometans. These subsist chiefly by the pilgrims, about fifteen hundred or two thousand of whom annually visit the holy city. This zeal to to visit Jerusalem gave rise to the crusades in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when the princes of Europe, with millions of their subjects, travelled to that city, and numerous armies were employed to wrest it out of the hands of infidels; by which some European kingdoms were greatly impoverished. But pilgrimages from Europe have almost ceased; and few are seen to visit this city but Greeks, Armenians and other Asiatics.

6. The chief traffic of Jerusalem consists in the sale of beads, crosses, and sacred relics to the pilgrims. The fabrication of these articles procures subsistence for the greatest part of the inhabitants. Men, women and children are employed in carving and turning wood and coral, or embroidering silk, with pearls and gold and silver thread. The convent of the holy land alone lays out fifty thousand piasters in these wares. These commodities, rendered saleable by a superstitious veneration for relics, are exported to Turkey, Italy, Portugal and Spain.

LII. TEMPLES in JERUSALEM.

1. THE HE temple designed by David and finished by Solomon, was one of the most magnificent buildings ever erected. It was not a single edifice, like a modern church, but a number of courts connected. It stood on the top of mount Moriah, and made an exact square of eight hundreds cubits, about fourteen hundred and sixty feet on each side, and fronting the four cardinal points.

2. To secure the walls of this immense structure, it was necessary to begin the foundation at the bottom of the mountain, so that the walls were above six hundred feet high. The stones were of the largest sizes, and so mortised into each other that the joints could not be seen, and so wedged into the rocks, as to be immoveable. The whole was surrounded with a battlement of five feet thickness, in which were windows formed with gold wire. Immediately within this was a terrace walk of ninety feet width, into which strangers were permitted to enter, and here was a sort of exchange or place for buying and selling.

3. The temple, properly so called, was about a hundred

and fifty feet in length, and a hundred in breadth. This consisted of three parts, the porch, the sanctuary, and the holy of holies. Over the porch was a tower a hundred and twenty cubits high. The sanctuary or nave of the temple, contained the altar of incense and the table of shew-bread; the holy of holies, a square of twenty cubits, contained the ark of the covenant, in which were the two tables of stone, on which were engraved the ten commandments.

4. This vast edifice, which employed one hundred and eighty thousand men for seven years in its construction, was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzer, four hundred and twenty-four years after it was built. After the seventy years of ca tivity, the Jews returned and built a second temple; but inferior to the first in magnificence. This was destroyed when the city was taken by Titus, and the Jews ceased to be a nation.

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LIII. MOUNT SINAI.

T the extremity of the valley of Faran, in Arabia, is a range of mountains, called by the Arabians, Gibbel Mousa, the mountains of Moses. One eminence is called Tursina, and is supposed to be the Sinai of the scripture. About seven miles from the foot of this mountain stands the convent of St. Catharine, an edifice of a hundred and twenty feet in length, and nearly square. The whole is of hewn stone.

2. In front stands a small building, in which is the only gate of the convent, which is always shut, except when the bishop is present; at other times whatever is introduced, whether persons or provisions, is raised to the roof in a basket by a pulley. Yet the Arabs say the monks enter by a subterranean passage. Before the convent is a large garden.

3. No stranger is permitted to enter without permission of the bishop who usually resides at Cairo. The monks are supported chiefly by alms, and their provisions, which are collected in Cairo, are often stolen on the way, by the Arabs. The Arabs also fire upon the convent from the neighbouring rocks, and often seize the monks when abroad, and make them pay for their ransom.

4. On the side of this hill is a huge stone, which the Arabs say, is that which Moses divided with his sword to procure water. In this vicinity there are many springs of good water.

Fifteen hundred paces above the convent, stands a chapel dedicated to the virgin Mary, and five hundred paces above this, two others situated on a plain. The whole mountain is ascended by fourteen hundred stone steps, and on the top is a Christian church and a Turkish mosque. From this spot there is a noble view of the valley of Riphidim and the Red Sea.

LIV. RUINS of PALMYRA.

1. N the barren plains of Syria, south-east of Aleppo,

and nearly at an equal distance between the Mediterranean and the Euphrates, are to be seen the stupendous ruins of the magnificent city of Palmyra. The city, it is conjectured, was the Tadmor of the wilderness, built, or more properly enlarged and fortified by Solomon. It stood at the point formed by the approach of two converging hills, which furnish two springs of water, without which the place would not be habitable.

2. It is probable that this city was built and supported by the profits of a lucrative trade, carried on by caravans between Syria and the Persian gulf. It rose to a state of unequalled splendour and wealth, as is evident from its ruins. It was reduced under the power of the Romans by the emperor Trajan. It revolted under its prince Odenathus-but this prince being slain by his nephew, the sovereignty devolved on Zenobia, his wife, a woman of remarkable intrepidity, who withstood for a time the power of Rome. But Zenobia was at last conquered and taken prisoner, and a Roman garrison left in Palmyra. A second revolt provoked Aurelian to destroy the city; and in this catastrophe perished the elegant critic, Longinus.

3. As the traveller approaches these ruins, he is struck with astonishment at the number, size, and beauty of the white marble columns, some of them standing, others fallen or defaced, which form a range of twenty-six hundred yards. In one place he sees the walls of a ruined palace; in another, the peristyle of a temple, half destroyed; on one side a portico, a gallery or triumphal arch; on the other, a group of magnificent columns. On all sides he is surrounded with subverted shafts, some entire, others broken; the earth is strewed with vast stones half buried, with broken entablatures, damaged capitals, mutilated frizes, violated tombs, and altars defiled with dust.

4. But the spectator's curiosity will be arrested by the majestic remains of the Temple of the Sun. This noble edifice covered a square of two hundred and twenty yards. It was encompassed with a stately wall, built with large square stones, and adorned with pilasters, within and without to the number of sixty-two. Within the court are the remains of two rows of marble pillars, thirty-seven feet high, with capitals of exquisite workmanship. Of these, fifty-eight remain entire. This edifice stands in the direction of the meridian, and on the west is a magnificent entrance, on the sides of which are vines and clusters of grapes, carved in the most masterly imitation of nature.

5. North of this place is an obelisk, about fifty feet high, consisting of seven large stones, besides its capital. About a hundred paces from the obelisk, is a magnificent entry to a piazza, forty feet broad, and more than half a mile in length, inclosed with two rows of marble pillars, twenty-six feet high, and each nine feet in compass. Of these one hundred and twenty-nine remain, and by computation the whole number must have been five hundred and sixty. Such majestic ruins, in the midst of a desert, and inhabited only by a few miserable Arabs, whose huts are scattered among vast and splendid columns of marble, awaken in the mind, the most melancholy reflections upon the instability of all human greatness.

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LV. Of the PYRAMIDS in Egypt.

BOUT twelve miles from Cairo, the metropolis

of Egypt, and on the opposite or west side of the Nile, stands the pyramids, about ten miles from the scite of the ancient Memphis. The large ones are three in number, situated upon a ridge of rocky hills, on the border of the Lybian desert. This ridge rises from the plain of Egypt about one hundred feet.

2. The largest of these stupendous works is six hundred feet square at the base, and five hundred feet high, composed of soft calcareous stone, which also forms the hill where it stands. The whole area covered by this mass of stone is about eleven acres of ground. On the outside are steps by which a person may ascend, but not without danger, as the steps are much decayed, except on the south side. On the top is a level platform, sixteen feet square, where a person

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