From the first wall the second had its start, and here the difficulty arises, and here also the real value of the rock-levels is most noticeable. Can the wall be drawn to exclude the traditional Calvary, or must it of necessity include that spot? The answer, I think, may be given without hesitation, and the present site of the Holy Sepulchre will probably be discarded by any unprejudiced inquirer, if the following facts are taken into consideration.
The description of Josephus is tantalising from its brevity; but one word seems wanting--a word which must be supplied by the rocks themselves.
"The second wall took its beginning from the Gate Gennath, which belonged to the first wall. It encircled the north quarter of the city, and reached as far as the Tower Antoniaâ (B. J. v. 4, 2).
The word rendered "encircledâ cannot well be construed with any other meaning. The wall had no angles, as had the first and third, it therefore required no lengthy description. The second wall started from the first wall, and running in a curve enclosed the Lower City, and terminated at the north-east corner of the Temple.
The one statement wanted is that which should fix the Gennath Gate, which, as is generally admitted, was somewhere in the north face of the wall of the Upper City.
Now, as we have seen above, a great valley separates the Upper City from Acra, and a second valley runs southwards on the west side of the upper hill. No military man will suppose for a moment that the wall of a fortress could have been constructed in a deep valley and commanded from without by high ground immediately near. The wall must have stood _on the high ground_, and must have included one valley and excluded the other. Thus we are confined to a very narrow limit--to that saddle of rock at the head of the Tyropoeon, which connects the great peninsula of the Upper City with the Acra knoll, for this little saddle is the only place where the rampart could protect the lower ground east of it, and command the valley to the west.
Here, therefore, hidden by the palace of the Protestant Bishop, still perhaps exists the foundation or the rock scarp, in which was the Gennath Gate; and from this isthmus of high land the second wall circled round to Antonia. The sudden deepening and the great breadth of the Tyropoeon appear to me to render it impossible to draw the line farther east.