Josephus, a Jewish historian, that lived during the destruction of the Temple wrote....."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 (14)
........that hill on which the tower of Antonia stood was the highest of these three.

• The first hill -the City.
• The second hill -the Temple, from which the city was guarded.
• The third (highest hill) hill -the Tower of Antonia, which was the guard over the Temple.

• The fourth hill -Bezetha

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.
 
 

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 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.  

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. 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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