sians_, either the same year, or in the end of the year before. At his
death he was seventy years old according to _Herodotus_, and therefore he
was born in the year of _Nabonassar_ 149, his mother _Mandane_ being the
sister of _Cyaxeres_, at that time a young man, and also the sister of
_Amyite_ the wife of _Nebuchadnezzar_, and his father _Cambyses_ being of
the old Royal Family of the _Persians_.

* * * * *

CHAP. V.

_A Description of the _TEMPLE_ of _Solomon_._

[435] The Temple of _Solomon_ being destroyed by the _Babylonians_, it may
not be amiss here to give a description of that edifice.

This [436] Temple looked eastward, and stood in a square area, called the
_Separate Place_: and [437] before it stood the _Altar_, in the center of
another square area, called the _Inner Court_, or _Court of the Priests_:
and these two square areas, being parted only by a marble rail, made an
area 200 cubits long from west to east, and 100 cubits broad: this area was
compassed on the west with a wall, and [438] on the other three sides with
a pavement fifty cubits broad, upon which stood the buildings for the
Priests, with cloysters under them: and the pavement was faced on the
inside with a marble rail before the cloysters: the whole made an area 250
cubits long from west to east, and 200 broad, and was compassed with an
outward Court, called also the _Great Court_, or _Court of the People_,
[439] which was an hundred cubits on every side; for there were but two
Courts built by _Solomon_: and the outward Court was about four cubits
lower than the inward, and was compassed on the west with a wall, and on
the other three sides [440] with a pavement fifty cubits broad, upon which
stood the buildings for the People. All this was the [441] _Sanctuary_, and
made a square area 500 cubits long, and 500 broad, and was compassed with a
walk, called the _Mountain of the House_: and this walk being 50 cubits
broad, was compassed with a wall six cubits broad, and six high, and six
hundred long on every side: and the cubit was about 211/2, or almost 22
inches of the _English_ foot, being the sacred cubit of the _Jews_, which
was an hand-breadth, or the sixth part of its length bigger than the common
cubit.

The _Altar_ stood in the center of the whole; and in the buildings of [442]
both Courts over against the middle of the _Altar_, eastward, southward,
and northward, were gates [443] 25 cubits broad bet