Early travels in Palestine, comprising the narratives of Arculf, Willibald, Bernard, Sæwulf, Sigurd, Benjamin of Tudela, Sir John Maundeville, de la Brocquière, and Maundrell / Edited ... by Thomas Wright.

Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Early travels in Palestine, comprising the narratives of Arculf, Willibald, Bernard, Sæwulf, Sigurd, Benjamin of Tudela, Sir John Maundeville, de la Brocquière, and Maundrell / Edited ... by Thomas Wright. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    in a rougii manner, by raising beams and planks upon some remains of old ruins ; this is their place of worship, and it is said that it will hold about three thousand men^^. Arculf also observed many large and handsome houses of stone in all parts of the city, but his attention was more especially attracted by the holy places. The church of the Holy Sepulchre is very large and round, encompassed with three walls, with a broad space between each, and containing three altars of wonderful workmanship, in the middle wall, at three different points; on the south, the north, and the west. It is supported by twelve stone columns of ex- traordinary magnitude; and it has eight doors or entrances through the three opposite walls, four fronting the north-east, and four to the south-east. In the middle space of the inner circle is a round grotto cut in the solid rock, the interior of which is large enough to allow' nine men to pray, standing, and the roof of which is about a foot and a half higher than a man of ordinary stature. The entrance is from the east side, and the wdiole of the exterior is covered with choice marble to the very top of the roof, which is adorned with gold, and supports a large golden cross. Within, on the north side, is the tomh of our Lord, hewn out of the same rock, seven feet in length, and rising three palms above the floor. These mea- surements were taken by Arculf with his own hand. This tomb is broad enough to hold one man lying on his back, and has a raised division in the stone to separate his legs. The en- trance is on the south side, and there are twelve lamps burn- ing day and night, according to the number of the twelve apostles; four within at the foot, and the other eight above, on the right-hand side. Internally, the stone of the rock remains in its original state, and still exhibits the marks of the w^orkman’s tools; its colour is not uniform, but appears to be a mixture of white and red. The stone that was laid at the entrance to the monument is now broken in tw'o; the * Jerusalem was first captured by the Saracens, under the khalif Omar, in 637, about sixty years before it was visited by Arculf. The patriarch Sophronius, when requested by Omar to point out a place for the erection of a mosque, is said to have taken him to the mins on the site of Solo- mon’s Temple, which had been deserted by the Christians, and where the building known as the Mosque of Omar was subsequently built. Until Arculf s time, the Mohammedans appear, however, to have had but a rough and temporary erection, unless the worthy bishop’s pious zeal would not allow him to speak of the mosque otherwise than disrespectfully.
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