Notwithstanding the intense interest of the topography of Palestine, and above all else of the Holy City itself, yet it is only within the life-time of the present generation that any attempt has been made, systematically and scientifically, to explore its sacred and historical sites.

Centuries after the foundations of ancient Rome had been traced, years after the temples of Attica had been searched and rifled by Lord Elgin of their fairest ornaments, we knew no more of the topography of Jerusalem than could be gathered from the monkish chroniclers, or from Reland and Maundrell, and dreamt not that a buried city lay beneath the streets of modern Zion, as little revealed by the contour of the buildings on the surface as were the palaces beneath the sand mounds of Assyria.