Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894/Jerusalem Topography
JERUSALEM TOPOGRAPHY.
By George St. Clair, F.G.S.
Rev. W. F. Birch, in the Quarterly Statement for October, 1893, begins by assuming that Zion is the same as the stronghold of Zion, and in his very title assumes Zion to be coincident with Akra.
On going back to Quarterly Statement, 1889 (p. 286), to which he refers me, I find that he considers me radically wrong in accepting Warren's position for Akra, north-east of the Upper City, because there are passages in Josephus which require Akra to be on Ophel, as he conceives. Yet nothing is commoner in Mr. Birch's writings than to find him throwing Josephus overboard when he disagrees with him.
But I have no wish for controversy with Mr. Birch. I readily admit that he has given a great deal of patient study to the question. His views and opinions are before us in many numbers of the Quarterly Statement. My own conclusions and opinions are sufficiently set forth in my volume on "Buried Cities." We differ from one another; and Sir Charles Wilson, the surveyor of Jerusalem, differs from us both. The difficulty of the problem is universally recognised, and no final solution can be expected except from further excavation. We are all agreed that the sepulchres of the kings were excavated in the rock of Ophel, and therefore a great discovery may probably reward renewed search.
I am glad to see that Herr Baurath von Schick, in the Quarterly Statement for July, 1893, gives a plan in which he represents Millo as a great rampart across the Tyropœon Valley. This indicates that he adheres to his view expressed in Quarterly Statement, 1892, p. 22, that "the house of Millo (2 Kings, xii, 20) was a palace standing on the embankment of Millo, which embankment closed the Tyropœon Valley, and so protected the 'City of David' towards the north (1 Kings, xi, 27.)" This is a confirmation of my own views, published in the Quarterly Statement, 1891 (p. 187), when I think they were new to all readers.
It is only fair to Herr Schick to say that he places Millo a little higher up the valley than I do. If there is truth in either position, I might repeat now what I said then, viz., that Millo might be found by sinking one shaft in the Tyropœon Valley and driving a gallery north and south. And then would follow the discovery of the Stairs of the City of David, and the Sepulchres of the Kings.