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Location of Solomon's Temple

Research Menu
Josephus: Temple Aerial Photo
-Temple Mount
Warren's Survey Map
-With  descriptions
Ophel
 Excavations
-Ruins reveal the location
Water Channels and levels
-Map and info
Ancient 
Ophel Steps
Fort Antonia
-On the highest hill
Nehemiah Map
-Map of City Wall
Double Gate
-Not Huldah Gate
Southeast Corner 
-Who built it?
Temple Platform
-Original location
Wailing wall
-A little history

The Ophel Ruins
In my research I found so much evidence in the ruins on the Ophel, the ruins under the Mount, and in the writings of the Jewish people, to prove that this was where the southern court  of first and second Temple complex was located.  I can only hope that when you finish reading this site you will come to the same conclusion.

Josephus, a Jewish historian, that lived during the destruction of the Temple wrote.....The Wars of the Jews, Book 5 chp 5,8  "for the temple was a fortress that guarded the city, as was the tower of Antonia a guard to the temple; and in that tower were the guards of those three.
........that hill on which the tower of Antonia stood was the highest of these three.

The highest hill on the eastern ridge is where the Dome of the Rock is located.

The Wars of the Jews, Book 5 chp 4, 2
  .................... 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.  It lies over against (across from) the tower Antonia, but is divided from it by a deep valley, which was dug on purpose (a moat), and that in order to hinder the foundations of the tower of Antonia from joining to this hill,  


 Most people place Fort Antonia on the hill Bezetha. As we can see this is incorrect according to Josephus.  It (Bezetha-New City)  lies over against (across from) the tower Antonia, but is divided from it by a deep valley, which was dug on purpose (the moat)

 That places the location of the Temple as being South of the Dome of the Rock area.

The city of David was on a hill with valleys surrounding it on three sides, but on the north was the weak spot in it's defense.   It was there that the Temple was built and surrounded with very high walls, as a fortress.   Beyond that, but connected to it, a tower was erected on the highest rocky hill.  Later this tower was added to becoming a fort also called Fort Antonia.  To further fortify the Temple and City from a northern attack a 200 foot moat was dug north of that, separating this hill from the hill Bezetha.   An army attacking the City of Jerusalem had to fill in the moat, destroy the walls of Fort Antonia, before they could take the Temple.    Which Titus and his army actually did in 70 AD.



Where is that second hill that Josephus spoke of?
The hill of "The Temple, from which the city was guarded"

Ophel is the hill that lies between the highest hill and the old city of David below, just as Josephus described.
 
 

On Ophel hill a person can view a gigantic mass of bedrock protruding out of the hill.  It is 215 feet wide and 22 feet high.  On the face of that massive rock either King David, or Solomon, cut huge steps leading to the top of it. 

It has been suggested that the steps lead up to tunnels, passageways, which the people walked through to get up to the surface of the Temple Mount.  But there is NO record of these tunnels in all of history.   In fact these passages, under Al-Aksa Mosque,  are proved to have been constructed after the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD.

Ophel ruins at the Southern wall
Ophel steps
The ancient steps, cut into the bedrock excavated in 1967

Quote; The massive stairs lead up to the platform. ["The large monumental stairway just to the south of the Double Gate was excavated.] This stairway of 30 steps  is 215 feet wide, paved with smoothly trimmed stones, and its FOUNDATION STEPS ARE CUT INTO THE BEDROCK. From a wide plaza below on the south…the STAIRWAY ROSE 22 FEET [sic 22-1/2 feet] to the UPPER STREET [the rampart/platform] in front of the Double Gate" [W. Harold Mare, The Archeology of the Jerusalem Area, p. 154; see also Benjamin Mazar, The Mountain of the Lord].

King David purchased a threshing floor north of, and above,  the City of David and on that foundation rock he built an altar to God. And before the altar his son built the House of God and in it he placed the Ark of the Covenant.

I believe those steps lead up to the threshing floor of David. The second hill Josephus spoke of, where the Temple once stood. If that is the case, and I believe I have proved that it is, then the Ophel Excavations are part of the old Temple Complex.  


Below is a Close-up of the right lower corner of the Ophel Ruins with its gates and walls of ancient times. They tell a wondrous tale.

ophel gates

Ophel ruins

By laying the lower right corner of the above diagram over this photo, the ruins reveal they were part of the Temple compound.

Ophel layout

Herod's southern gate was in the center of the 600 foot south wall of the temple compound
Also see; Collapsed Ruins on the Ophel and Those Strange Arches
Click Here



New photo of Ophel ruins

Click here


 
Sir Charles Warren's Survey Map 

with temple diagram overlays
The drawing not only fits the shape of the ruins of the Ophel but also the underground ruins shown by Warren.  This map shows only some of the ruins, both above ground and below, that are easily identified when my design is placed over the top.
Herod Temple layout

Herod temple diagram
Click on Maps for larger image 

From the ruins of the North gate to the ruins of a South gate and from the ruins of Robinson's arch to Triple gate they form a perfect square 600 X 600 feet!    This is also not a coincidence

Most of the old Solomon temple walls (in green)  were removed by Herod. According to historical accounts Herod's temple area was around 187x187 meters square (at 44 cm per cubit, 17.5 inches per cubit, approximately 600 feet). 


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Locating Solomon's Temple
"Locating Solomon's Temple"
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