Palestine and Syria:  Handbook for Travelers

The Valley of Hinnom is bounded on the S. (left) by the Jebel Abu Tor, a hill also called the Hill of the Tombs, the Hill of the Field of Blood, and most usually by the Franks the Mount of Evil Counsel.  It is most easily ascended from the Bethlehem road (p. 117). It derives the last of these names from a legend of the 14th cent., to the effect that Caiaphas possessed a country-house here, where he consulted with the Jews how he might kill Jesus.

The Valley of Hinnom, which never contains water, separates this hill from Zion. It comes from the W. and slopes precipitously.  The soil is well cultivated at places, though plentifully sprinkled with small stones.

The name of the valley is properly Gê Ben Hinnôm, 'the valley of Ben Hinnom' (Josh. xv. 8), a name especially applied to the lower half of the valley (now Wâdi er-Rebâbi). It was in this valley that children were at one time sacrificed to Moloch (Jer. xii. 31; 2 Kings xxiii. 10).  The spot was called Tophet, or place of fire. Even at a later period the valley was an object of detestation to the Jews, whence the word Gehenna, used in the New Testament, a contraction of Gehinnom, came to signify hell among both the Jews and the Mohammedans. The name 'valley of fire', at present applied to the lower part of the valley of the Kidron ( Wâdi en-Nâr), may perhaps have some connection with these ancient idolatrous rites.

From Job's Well we turn to the W. and ascend the slope of the hill to the left, to the ancient Necropolis. A little beyond the point where the valleys unite we find tombs in the hill to the left. They are excavated in two slopes of rock, one above the other. The low entrances, many of which are tastefully ornamented, are in some cases approached by rock-hewn steps ; they are said once to have been furnished with stone doors. The tombs contain a number of vaults for different families. Some of them were occupied by hermits from the early Christian period down to the middle ages, and afterwards by poor families and cattle. — We here adopt Toiler's plan, which is, unfortunately, not altogether reliable: —

1. Group of chambers, blacken ed with smoke, once a hermitage.
2. Rock- chamber with four shaft-tombs.
3. Portal. The second chamber towards the S. was once a beautiful vaulted chapel. Farther S., a tomb-chamber.
4. Chamber (now filled up) with ten shaft-tombs.
5. Cavern farthest E., once a hermitage. That in the centre has a vault, and cells adjacent to it.  Next to it, on the N., is a cavern with an illegible Greek inscrip tion.
6. Tomb-chamber.
7. Chamber with three niches, and a cross over the entrance.
8. Chamber remarkably well hewn. A few steps descend to the portal adorned with mouldings and gable. The upper story contains a large anteroom with six finely enriched doors , and there are in all fourteen tomb-niches.  The lower story is uninteresting.
9. Tomb-grottoes and chapel with paintings.
10. The so-called Apostles' Cavern, in which, according to a tradition of the 16th cent., the apostles concealed themselves when Christ was taken prisoner, and during the Crucifixion. Above the entrance is a frieze in ten sections. In the forecourt are two series of frescoes, one above the other , with monograms of the name of Jesus Christ, crosses, and other devices. The first chamber was a chapel, the walls and ceiling of which are painted.  The large chamber at the back of the chapel was probably once a hermitage; beyond it is another chamber with tombs, as there is on the E. side also.
11. This is a group of three different sets of chambers. Over the entrance is the inscription 'to the holy Zion' in Greek. The tombs were probably those of members of the 'church of Zion'.
12. We now ascend to the Aceldama, or Building of the Field of Blood, Arab. El-Ferdus (paradise).

The Bible does not inform us where the 'field of blood' (Acts i. 19) lay, and it has since been shown in different parts of the environs of Jerusalem, churches and monasteries having been erected in connection with it. The present Aceldama has always been much revered by Christians, and is frequently visited by pilgrims, many of whom are buried here. The soil is believed to be very favourable to decomposition. According to the legend it is also called Shurnén, i. e. charnel-house (of the Crusaders), and in a map of the 13th cent, it is marked 'Carnelium'.

The structure is formed of a large half-open grotto, walled up in front and roofed over with masonry. Originally the only openings were in the roof, but a gap in the wall now permits the visitor to enter the interior. In the centre is a massive pillar and in the rooky sides are shaft-tombs. The floor is covered with a layer of bones about 6 ft. thick, above which is a covering layer of sand and rubbish. On the W. wall of the interior are crosses and Armenian inscriptions.

13a. Cavern, which the Greek Christians call Ferdûs er-Rûm, 'the paradise of the Greeks', or the 'cavern of the giant saint Onophrius'. Near it are some ruins.
13b, 13c. Uninteresting.
14. Two chambers with shaft and niche-tombs.
15. Unimportant.
16. A cavern with a lower story containing shaft-tombs. The white limestone of the central chamber is remarkable for its red veins.
17. A cavern with ancient Greek inscriptions.
18. A double-cave, with the inscription , 'Burial-place of the holy church of Zion for several persons from Rome,' in Greek.
19-21. Unimportant. Some with inscriptions.
22. Tomb with an inscription like No. 11, and provided with a cistern.
23. Cavern, to which ten steps in the rock ascend. Over the entrance to the chamber is the inscription, 'Tomb of Thekla the daughter of Marulf in Greek.

From the W. end of the tombs we pass by the eye-hospital of the English knights of St. John, on a hill to our left, and come to the Bethlehem road (p. 117), where a road branches off to the S.W., past the large Jewish Hospice (PL f) founded by Sir Moses Monteflore.  This road divides after a few min., the left branch leading to the Railway Station, the right branch to the pleasing houses of the German Colony of the Temple. This flourishing colony (some 400 souls) is named Rephaim, from the plain (p. 118). Here are the offices of the Temple Society. — A road leads hence to the S.W., past the cemetery of the colony, and brings us in 12 min. to the Greek colony Katamon (p. 1 18). — The Lepers' Hospital is situated a few minutes to the W. of the Temple colony. The institution is maintained by Moravian Brethren. The disease is hereditary though not at all infectious, and the seclusion of the patients is necessary to prevent them from marrying and thus perpetuating the evil.  Hideously repulsive leprous beggars from the Turkish Leprosy Hospital (p. 96) are still met with on the Jaffa road, especially on the way to the Mount of Olives.

Leprosy waa a disease of somewhat frequent occurrence among the Israelites. There are now about 40-50 lepers in Jerusalem. The Biblical regulations regarding leprosy are of a very rigorous character (Levit.  xiii, xiv). Leprosy is the consequence of a kind of decomposition of the blood. Several months before the outbreak of the disease the patient feels languid and suffers from cold chills , shivering in the limbs, and attacks of fever. Reddish spots then make their appearance on the skin, and under them rise dark red lumps which are more or less movable. In the face particularly these lumps unite into groups resembling bunches of grapes. The mouth and lips swell, the eyes run, and the patient is frequently tormented by excessive itching over the whole body. The mucous membrane begins to be destroyed, and nodules form internally also. The organs of speaking, seeing, and hearing become affected. At length the swellings burst, turn into dreadful, festering sores, and heal up agaip, but only to break out at a different place. The fingers become bent, and some of the limbs begin to rot away. This kind of leprosy, with its accompanying swellings, differs from the smooth leprosy, which produces painful, flat, inflamed patches on the skin, followed by sores. Other maladies are generally superinduced by the leprosy, but the patient sometimes drags on his melancholy existence for twenty years or more. The patients in this hospital present a spectacle of human misery in one of its most frightful phases, and the visitor will not fail to sympathise with the benevolent efforts that are being made to alleviate their suffering to the utmost, and to prevent the farther spread of the scourge.

By proceeding directly to the N. from the Lepers' Hospital we reach the road to the Monastery of the Cross (p. 110), which passes the Mamilla Pool hr). Returning by the Bethlehem road and proceeding along it for about 10 min. , we cross the Valley of Hinnom, on the S. bank of the Birket es-Sultan, or Sultan's Pool.

This reservoir is probably to be referred to the ancient Jewish epoch.  In the time of the Franks it was called Germanus, in memory of the Crusader who discovered Job's Well. It was remodelled at that period, and, in the middle of the 16th cent., was restored by Sultan Soliman, whence its present name. At a later period the spot was pointed out here where David first beheld Bathsheba.

The pool is 185 yds. long from N. to S., and 73 yds. in width; the N. wall has fallen to ruin. On the N. side it is 35 ft. in depth, and on the S. side 41 ft., including the rubbish. This imposing reservoir has been constructed by the erection of two substantial walls across the valley , the intervening space being excavated as far as the rocky sides of the valley, these last thus forming the two other sides. The dry floor of the lower part consists of rock; the upper part on the W. side is now used as a garden. A cattle-market is held here every Friday. In the middle of the wall to the S. of the pond is an old well, formerly fed by a branch of the conduit from the Pools of Solomon. This conduit (p. 129) descends the valley from the N., and turns to the S. beyond it.

From this point the road skirts the town wall and brings us in 5 min. to the Jaffa Gate (p. 81).