ained a king, are
extensive and interesting. They are surrounded by a wall, and to reach
them the visitor must go down a very wide stairway. The steps probably
do not number more than twenty-five, but the distance from one side of
the stairs to the other is twenty-seven feet. There are channels cut in
the rock to carry the water that comes down these steps to the cisterns,
two in number, one of which is a good-sized room cut in the rock at the
side of the stairway. It contained about three feet of water when I saw
it, although there had been no rain in Jerusalem for half a year. The
other one, at the bottom of the stairs, is much larger, and was empty.
The vaulted roof is supported by a column, and there are steps leading
from one level of the floor to another.

Turning to the left at the foot of the big stairway, we passed through
an arch cut through the rock into a court made by excavating the earth
and stone to a depth of perhaps twenty feet. It is ninety feet long and
eighty-one feet wide. The entrance to the tombs is by a vestibule cut in
the rock at one side of the court, and it appears that this once had a
row of pillars along the front, like veranda posts. We went down a few
steps and stooped low enough to pass through an opening about a yard
high. Beyond this we found ourselves in a good-sized room, cut in the
solid rock. There are five of these rooms, and so far as the appearance
is concerned, one might suppose they had been made in modern times, but
they are ancient. The bodies were usually buried in "pigeon-holes" cut
back in the walls of the rooms, but there are some shelf tombs, which
are sufficiently described in their name. One room seems never to have
been completed, but there are burial places here for about forty people.

One of the interesting things about these tombs is the rolling stone by
which they were closed. It is a round rock, resembling a millstone. The
height is a little over three feet and a half, and the thickness sixteen
inches. It stands in a channel cut for the purpose, but was rolled
forward before the entrance when it was desirable to have the tombs
closed. When Jesus was buried, a "great stone" was rolled to the mouth
of the sepulcher, and the women thought of this as they went to the tomb
on the first day of the week, saying: "Who shall roll us away the stone
from the door of the tomb?" (Mark 16:3.) They went on and found the tomb
open; so, also, we may often find the stone rolled