| 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 |
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.
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.
Ophel
is the hill that lies between the highest hill and the old city of
David
below, just as Josephus described.
 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.
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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 ruins |
By laying the lower right
corner of the
above diagram over this photo, the ruins reveal they
were
part of the Temple compound.
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New
photo of Ophel ruins
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Sir Charles Warren's Survey Map with temple diagram overlays 
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). |
|
BOOKS   "Locating
Solomon's Temple" |
Locating
Solomon's Temple
NOW
ON VIDEO!
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