All along outside this wall the ground falls away into the southern valley; and upon the dreary and stony steep opposite is the place called Acaldama.
Wall and valley turn together round the corner of the great temple platform, and confronting the eastern wall, across the ravine, is the mighty wall of the Mount of Olives.

On this side there are several gates now blocked up, of which the most famous, the Golden Gate, carries in its very uselessness a testimony to the fallen warriors of the cross.

For there is a strange Moslem legend that through this gate, so solemnly sealed up, shall ride the Christian King who shall again rule in Jerusalem.
In the middle of the square enclosure rises the great dark Dome of the Rock; and standing near it, a man may see for the first time in the distance, another dome.

It lies away to the west, but a little to the north; and it is surmounted, not by a crescent but a cross.
Many heroes and holy kings have desired to see this thing, and have not seen it.
It is very characteristic of the city, with its medieval medley and huddle of houses, that a man may first see the Church of the Holy Sepulchre which is in the west, by going as far as possible to the east.
All the sights are glimpses; and things far can be visible and things near invisible.

The traveller comes on the Moslem dome round a corner; and he finds the Christian dome, as it were, behind his own back.
But if he goes on round the wall to the north-east corner of the Court of the Temple, he will find the next entrance; the Gate of St.Stephen.
On the slope outside, by a strange and suitable coincidence, the loose stones which lie on every side of the mountain city seemed to be heaped higher; and across the valley on the skirts of the Mount of Olives is the great grey olive of Gethsemane.
On the northern side the valley turns to an artificial trench, for the ground here is higher; and the next or northern gate bears the name of Herod; though it might well bear the name either of Godfrey or Saladin.