Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/169

Topography of Jerusalem. '5 son's Arch. The English explorers broke through the pavement, when, at the bottom of the ravine, they think they came upon the fellow stone arches of an older bridge (Fig. 107). Sir Charles Warren's measurements of the bridge are the following : from the crown of the arch to the pavement, 13 m., to the base of the pier, 13 m. 88 c, and 23 m. to the bottom of the canal. Fig 108. — Wilson's Arch. Albeit no details are given as to the shape and size of the arch stones, enough is said to enable us to conclude that before the use of dressed stones, a bridge, at a lower level, spanned the valley, perhaps as early as the days of Solomon. 1 We know that the principle of the arch travelled from Egypt and Assyria to Phoenicia ; and thence into Judaea, where it may have been applied from the tenth century b.c. ; that both bridges were built under the Romans, 1 Recovery of Jerusalem, pp. 99-1 11.