Palestine and Syria: Handbook for Travelers
The space in front of the Jaffa Gate is generally enlivened hy processions of arriving and departing pilgrims. The muleteers and horse-owners, Arab saddlers and farriers are generally posted outside the Jaffa Gate, and European shops have been built along each side of the road. On Friday and Sunday, the scene is especially lively, the Jaffa road being the favourite promenade of the natives.
The highroad to Bethlehem (p. 117) descends to the left just outside the gate into the Valley of Hinnom. A second road, which strikes off to the left after a few minutes, brings us in 5 min. to the —
Mâmmilla Pool. — The Mâmilla Pool is frequently identified with the 'upper pool' of the O. T.; but the reference in Is. vii. 3 seems to locate the latter to the N. of the city, while 2 Kings xviii. 17 and Is. xxxvi. 2 suggest that it was in the immediate vicinity of the town-wall. Another theory, equally uncertain, identifies the Mamilla Pool with the 'Serpent's Pool' mentioned by Josephus, up to which Titus caused the ground to be levelled, in order to facilitate his operations against the city. The name 'Mâmmilla' has not been explained.
The Mamilla Pool is situated in the middle of a Muslim burialground at the beginning of the valley of Hinnom. It is from E. to W. 97 yds. long, and from N. to S. 64 yds. wide, and 19 ft. in depth. In the S. corner are traces of steps. It is partly hewn in the rock, but the sides are also lined with masonry. On the S. and W. sides are buttresses. In winter it is filled with rain-water, but it is empty in summer and autumn. The outlet begins in the middle of the E. side and runs thence in windings towards the town, which it enters a little to the N. of the Jaffa Gate, discharging its water into the Patriarch's Pool (p. 79).
The Jaffa road itself first skirts the town wall, which is concealed by houses. On the right are the Turkish Post and Telegraph Office (PI. B, C, 4) and the branch of the Crédit Lyonnais. Opposite the N.W. angle of the wall is a Police Station, occupying the site of the former 'First Watch-tower' (p. 18). Two roads diverge here from the Jaffa road. The carriage-road skirting the town-wall to the N.E. leads past the (5 min.) Damascus Gate into the Kidion Valley (p. 94). If we take this road we have on our left the French Hospital of St. Louis, then a large French hospice for pilgrims, with the Augustinian church; on our right is the road to the New Gate; between the road and the town-wall are a few small houses and the convent of the Soeurs Réparatrices.
The second of the roads mentioned above leads direct to the N., between the Hôtel d'Europe on the left and the French hospital on the right, and along the E. wall of the Russian Buildings (see below), to St. Paul's Church, to the Rothschild girls' school, and farther on to the Tombs of the Judges (p. 107).
We proceed along the Jaffa road, past the Hôtel d'Europe on the right, and arrive at the large walled quadrangle of the Russian Buildings (on the right), which we may enter on the S. side. Immediately opposite the entrance are the French Consulate (PI. A, B, 2), on the right, and the Public Garden, on the left. The first of the Russian buildings on the left is the hospital with the druggist's store ; beyond it, the so-called Mission-house with the dwellings of the priests and rooms for wealthier pilgrims. To the right is the Russian Consulate (PI. 17). In the centre of the court stands the handsome Cathedral ; to the N. of it is the hospice for male pilgrims, to the E. that for female pilgrims. The church is spacious and richly decorated in the interior. Divine service generally takes place about 5 p.m. (best viewed from the gallery; good music). In the open space in front of the churoh lies a gigantic column (40 ft. by 5 ft.), cut out of the solid rock but, owing to a fracture, never completely severed from its bed. It is surrounded by a railing.
We leave the Russian Buildings by the gate in the N. wall. The large corner house on the left is the new hospice for pilgrims erected bv the Russian Palestine Society; opposite and to the N.E. is the German School. The road on the right leads to St. Paul's Church (see above). We regain the Jaffa Road, by the road on the left skirting the N. wall of the Russian Buildings. Here a road exactly opposite the N.W. corner of the Russian Buildings leads southwards to the large buildings of the German Catholic Hospice. On an eminence, at a little distance from the Jaffa road, we observe Ratisbonne's St. Peter's School for Arab boys. To the right, and nearer the Jaffa road, rises the Talitha Cumi (Mark v. 41: 'Damsel, I say unto thee, Arise !'), an orphanage for girls founded by the Rhenish-Westphalian deaconesses. In this well-organised building about a hundred Arab girls are educated. A similar establishment, at the back of the Russian buildings, towards the N., is Schneller's Syrian Orphanage for boys. — Farther from the town along the Jaffa road, we have on the left a number of newly established Jewish colonies, on the right the Austrian Consulate, then the Town Hospital, opposite which is a military station.
Returning to the town we take the road to the left by the Austrian Consulate. To the left are the girls' school and the new hospital of the English Mission to the Jews; to the right are the Jerusalem Hotel, the German Consulate, and the German Hospital. Farther on, to the left, we observe the School of the French sisters, then (a little back from the road) the British Consulate, the residence of Dr. Schick, the architect, and the Abyssinian Church. On the right again are the Russian home for women, the Rothschild girls' school, the Marienstift (p. 35), and the new Rothschild Hospital, behind it the German Jewish boys' school and orphanage. Here two roads meet : the one to the right leads past the German school and the Russian hospice for pilgrims (p. 82) to the N. gate of the Russian buildings; or we may take the road to the left past the American Consulate and the Rothschild girls' school, then cross the road from the Jaffa Gate to EnNebi Samwil (p. 114), and, passing through Jewish colonies, reach the Damascus Gate.