Situation and Extent.

II. Situation and Extent. — Jerusalem is situated near the summit of the range of mountains which forms the water-shed between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea, and which has been called the "backbone" of Palestine. Its distance from the Mediterranean is 32 miles, and from the Dead Sea 18 miles. The latitude of the city, as determined by the most trustworthy observations, is 31° 46' 35" north, and the longitude 35° 18' 30" east from Greenwich. According to the late British Survey, the dimensions of the Jerusalem of to-day are as follows; Length of the northern wall (measuring straight from point to point), 3930 feet; eastern wall, 2754 feet; southern wall, 3245 feet; western wall, 2086 feet; total circumference of the walls, 12,015 feet, or 2.27 miles. Dr. Robinson, measuring with a tapeline as closely as possible to the walls, found the aggregate length 12,978 feet, or nearly 2 1/2 miles. Maundrell, an English traveller, who visited Jerusalem at Easter in 1697, paced the walls round, and reckoned the distance at 12,501 feet. A pedestrian can walk around the city in an hour, taking a very leisurely gait. Josephus stated the entire circuit of the exterior walls in his day at 33 stadia, or a little less than 4 English miles. The ancient city included the southern slopes of Zion and Ophel, which are now without the walls, and the former is under cultivation, thus fulfilling the prediction of 2500 years ago: "Zion shall be ploughed like a field." Jer 26:18. The area included within the city walls is only 209 1/2 acres, or less than one-third of a square mile. About 465 acres are supposed to have been enclosed in the Holy City during the period of its greatest extent, after the third wall had been built by Herod Agrippa, but the old walls (of Solomon and Zerubbabel) only included an area of 155 acres.