Locating Solomon's Temple
NEHEMIAH
WALL
The old wall of Jerusalem
Chapter Two
Nehemiah's
wall gives us some important information that helps identify
where the Temple was NOT located. According to scripture Nehemiah did
not
rebuild any of the Temple walls. He only rebuilt the City walls, which
means
that the lower courses of stones in the east wall of the Mount were
part of
that city wall that Nehemiah rebuilt. The ruins of the oldest gate in
the
eastern wall still remain beneath the Muslim East Gate that we see
today. It was NOT the east gate of Solomon's Temple.
Leen Ritmeyer,
after finding two stones of what he believes to be part of the old
Hezekiah
wall (700 BC) indicates that the Hasmonean wall joins to the Hezekiah
wall (in
blue). This means there would also be a joint where these two walls
meet
together. The Hezekiah/ Nehemiah wall extended from that supposed joint
and
ends just beyond the Muslim east gate where it took a 90 degree turn
and
crossed the Temple Mount reaching as far as the edge of the Tyropeon
Valley.
Even though I
agree with Dr Ritmeyer about Hezekiah's wall beginning with these two
stones, I
disagree that it was a wall of the Temple. Remember Nehemiah rebuilt
the city
wall only. He did not rebuild any of the outer walls of the
Temple. Leen
Ritmeyer claims this old Hezekiah city wall was the east wall of the
Temple
compound and so places the location of the Temple where the Dome of the
Rock
now stands.
Notice in the
diagram that the Muslim gate is in the uppermost northern position in
Hezekiah's wall.
Also the
Hasmonean (165 BC) (in yellow) claimed more of the steep east hill by
extending
the old wall further toward the south.
North Wall and
Fort Antonia
It is interesting
to trace the changes in the area from the time that Nehemiah rebuilt
the city
wall, all the way up to when Josephus describes Fort Antonia. The wall
described by Nehemiah had two towers on it's north wall, the Towers
Meah and
Hananeel. These towers protected the Temple from a northern
attack.
Walls at the
time of Nehemiah in red
Black dashed
lines indicate the walls of the Mount as they are today
Click on
pictures to enlarge
The
Meah fortress was built upon under the Hasmonean, during the
late 2nd
century BC,
and was renamed the Tower Baris. It was rectangular and possessed
several high
towers.
The Baris was connected to the Temple by an underground
passageway. The
Baris was then besieged by Pompey the Great in 63 BC.
Under Herod the Great, the Baris underwent extensive reconstruction,
and he
named it Fort Antonia in honor of Mark Anthony. Fort Antonia,
just as
the Baris and the Meah before it, was located on the old north wall
that
Nehemiah rebuilt. It overlooked a moat on its north side.
The Moat
This topographical
map shows there was a natural land bridge between Fort Antonia and the
lower
hill to its north, called Bezetha. The moat was 200 feet long,
and to the
east of it was a ravine called the old Kidron Valley. The moat was cut
for the purpose
of separating the two hills, and making it impossible for catapults to
be set
up near the north wall of the Fortress, for lack of flat land. However
attacking armies would just fill in the moat with debris and create a
flat
surface and break down the north wall taking the fortress. From
there
they could take the Temple.
According
to Josephus this moat separated Fort Antonia from the hill to its
north.
The West Wall
It is my belief
that the walls of Fort Antonia were at a Northwest angle to the Temple.
There
is a step at the northwest corner of the Dome of the Rock platform. The
bottom
step is not a step at all. It is in fact a very old wall set at an
angle. The
red line in the map shows the old west wall following that same angle
as it
bends southward, forming the old northwest corner of Fort Antonia.
Since
the discovery of this wall the Muslims have covered it up but it was
well
documented beforehand.
Recently coins from
the 1st century were found under the west wall of the Temple Mount that
we see
today. This means that Herod the Great did not build the southern
portion of
the west wall, including the bridge called Robinson's Arch. However
this bridge
was one of the west gates Josephus claimed entered directly into the
600 x 600
foot Temple complex. We also know that the walls were not completed
until 66 AD
and yet Josephus seems to attribute it all to Herod the Great, who died
in 4
BC, so this work was most likely completed under Herod Agrippa I and
Herod
Agrippa II, of the "House of Herod".
Below would have been Fort Antonia and the
Temple in
the first century, after the work extending the temple courts was
complete.
Red arrows show six furlong around
(Furlong =600
ft)
Josephus describes
Antonia as a tower (fortress) with four towers and around it were other
towers.
In other words a fortress/citadel within a fortress. Two
colonnades on
the west and on the north connected Fort Antonia to the Temple.
According to Josephus
the Temple and Fort Antonia, together, were six furlong around. (War of
Jews
Book 5, 5) Meaning the Temple and Fort Antonia were each 600 x
600 feet.
This tells us that Fort Antonia only took up a small portion of the
Temple
mount we see today.
City walls during the first century
The
city walls during the time of Nehemiah (yellow).
Herod rebuilt this wall and also built a wall around the north quarter
of the
city (in green).
A third city wall included the city of Bezetha (purple). This third
wall
connected to the old Hezekiah city wall on the east. There wasn't
a wall
between Bezetha hill and the moat.
May
4, 2014 -The above map has been recently updated because of this
descrption by
Josephus
War of the Jews
Book 5. 4. 2
.......The second wall took its beginning from that gate which
they
called "Gennath," which belonged to the first wall; it only encompassed
the northern quarter of the city, and reached as far as the tower
Antonia.
The beginning of the third wall was at the tower
Hippicus,............It
was Agrippa who encompassed the parts added to the old city with this
wall,
which had been all naked before; for as the city grew more populous, it
gradually crept beyond its old limits, and those parts of it that stood
northward of the temple, and joined that hill to the city, made it
considerably
larger, and occasioned that hill, which is in number the fourth, and
is
called "Bezetha," to be inhabited also.
Return to Table of Content