Tuesday, March 4, 1902
Jerusalem.—Arose this
morning about 7:30. After breakfast we went up on the roof where we obtained a
fine view of the city and environs.—I neglected to state that we went on the
roof last evening to view the illumination in honor of the 25th accession of Pope
Leo XIII. They were very good.—We went down to the Prussian Hospice of St. John
to look at rooms there, then went on out of the Damascus Gate to Golgotha where
the Savior was crucified. At least where good authorities maintain that that
terrible event occurred. Of course the Catholics maintain that the site of the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre was that of Calvary, but the Bible and reason
prove otherwise. The hill is just the shape of a skull with caverns and holes
in the rock on the under side. Went then to the Garden of Gethsemane where
there are great olive trees said to be from the Savior’s time. The spots are
marked where Peter and others were, and where Judas betrayed the Savior. (Sylvester
Q. Cannon, Journal, March 4, 1902, in Off For the Holy Land: Apostle Francis
Marion Lyman’s 1902 Tour of the Middle East As Told by His Traveling Companion
Sylvester Q. Cannon, ed. Reid L. Neilson [Provo, Utah: BYU Religious
Studies Center; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2025], 165)
