With war imminent, Amalric I naturally could not remain in Holy Cross Castle. Though Holy Cross Castle was a magnificent structure, it could never accommodate the thousands needed for this battle, especially when many of them had been conscripted or hired. There might well be a few spies with treacherous hearts among them.
Amalric I set up camp in the hilly land outside the Golden Gate, near the Garden of Gethsemane. Lush olive trees grew everywhere here, and beneath their shadows lay countless rows of gray-white stone sarcophagi—some belonging to Isaacites, some to Christians, and some to Saracens.
It was said that the Savior would enter Jerusalem through the Golden Gate. When that day came, the Third Temple would reappear in the world, all the dead would rise again, and those closer to the Third Temple would be resurrected sooner.
After Jerusalem had been retaken, some had proposed moving away the Saracens' bones, but Baldwin I, then King of Jerusalem, refused.
He said that the Saracens buried here had once been followers of Caliph Umar I, a virtuous and enlightened ruler who had allowed Christians, Isaacites, and Muslims to worship here together. Even though he had left the world six hundred years ago, he should not suffer such humiliation.
Since Baldwin I had made that decision, the later kings of Jerusalem were even less likely to disturb these sages long dead. Amalric I did not even permit his soldiers to chop down the nearby olive trees, preferring to cut cedars and cypresses from farther away.
Tent after tent rose, and bonfire after bonfire lit up the night. People set racks over the fires and hung blackened pots from crossbars. Smoke and steam curled between the tents, roasting and drying the game brought back by knights and squires, strips of meat