The walls of dwellings in the East were of very different materials, from mere clay, or clay and pebbles, to durable hewn stone. See the latter part of the article HOUSE. As to the city walls, see BABYLON, CITY, and JERUSALEM. The accompanying cut shows a portion of the western wall of the sacred area, Haram-es-Sherif, at Jerusalem. The huge stones in its lower part are believed by the Jews, and with good reason, to have formed a part of the substructions of their ancient temple, and to be near the site of the Holy of Holies. Hence they assemble here every Friday, and more or less on other days, to weep and wail with every token of the sorest grief, and to pray for the coming of the Messiah. In former years they had to pay a large price for this melancholy privilege. A little beyond this spot, towards the south, is the fragment of an immense arch of forty-one feet span, one of five or six which supported a lofty causeway, from mount Zion to the temple area at its southern portico, 1Ki 10:5; 1Ch 26:16,18. Some of the stones in this part of the wall are twenty to twenty-five feet long.

(See HOUSE.) Foundations were often carried down to the solid rock, as in the case of the temple. The foundation stones are often of enormous size, 20 to 30 ft. long, by three to 6 ft. 6 inches wide, and five to 7 ft. 6 inches thick; three at Baalbek are each 68 ft. long, and one in the quarry 68 ft. 4 in. long, 17 ft. 2 in. broad, and 14 ft. 7 in. thick. Slabs of marble or alabaster line the walls of Solomon's buildings, as those of Nineveh.

In Palestine the principal cities were protected by surrounding walls, sometimes of great size. That of Gezer, for instance, was fourteen feet thick. These walls were built of stones, set in mud, or else of brick. The walls of houses were generally ill-built structures of the same materials. The choice of material varied with the locality: Lachish (Tell el-Hesy), for example, was almost entirely a brick town; in Gezer brick is the exception. See also artt. City; Fortification, 1; House, 4. For the walls of Jerusalem, which may be taken as typical of a city wall, see Jerusalem.

R. A. S. Macalister.

Walls.

Only a few points need be noticed.

1. The practice common in Palestine of carrying foundations down to the solid rock, as in the case of the temple, with structures intended to be permanent.

Lu 6:48

2. A feature of some parts of Solomon's buildings, as described by Josephus, corresponds remarkably to the method adopted at Nineveh of incrusting or veneering a wall of brick or stone with slabs of a more costly material, as marble or alabaster.

3. Another use of walls in Palestine is to support mountain roads Or terraces formed on the sides of hills for purposes of cultivation.

4. The "path of the vineyards,"

Nu 22:24

is a pathway through vineyards, with walls on each side.