- Zion:
- Josephus relates that Titus, after he had taken Jerusalem, ordered his soldiers to demolish it, except three of the largest and most beautiful towers, and the western wall of the city; all the rest was levelled, so that they who had never before seen it, could scarcely persuade themselves it had been inhabited. The Jewish writers also inform us, that Turnus Rufus, whom Titus had left in command, ploughed up the very foundations of the temple. When Dr. Richardson visited this sacred spot in 1818, he found one part of Mount Zion supporting a crop of barley, and another undergoing the labour of the plough. The soil turned up consisted of stone and lime mixed with earth, such as is usually met with in foundations of ruined cities. It is nearly a mile in circumference; is highest on the west side, and, towards the east, falls down in broad terraces on the upper part of the mountain as it slopes down toward the brook Kidron.
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