The Temple Mount

Significance | First Temple | Second Temple | Jesus and the Temple | History Since 70 AD | Islam and the Temple Mount | The Crusades | Middle Ages | 19th and 20th Century | Documentary Evidence | Archaeology | Reconstructions | Third Temple | Conclusion

Significance of the Temple Mount

Since 1967 the Temple Mount has developed worldwide political and religious significance as the key to the Palestinian problem. Its significance for Islam is based on it being the site of the Dome of Rock and the al-Aqsa mosque, the original qibla, or place to which Muslims directed their prayers and the third holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina. At the same time, for many Jews, it is the historic site of the First and Second Jewish temples, the holiest place in Judaism and the focal point of the city of Jerusalem, the place selected by God as the capital of Israel (2 Samuel 7.10). The Temple Mount also has important historic and eschatalogical associations for many Christians, as the site of the most important events of the New Testament.

In addition to its importance for world peace and the world's three major monotheistic religions, the Temple Mount has architectural and archaeological significance as the site of the largest and most important temple complex in the ancient world, one of the key influences on the development of Western art and architecture. The history of this site, and its interpretation over nearly two millenia, provides many important insights into the issues facing world heritage sites. For a summary list of dates associated with the Temple Mount see the Chronology. Below is a view of the Temple Mount looking west from the Mount of Olives, over the Kedron valley and the Garden of Gethsemane, with the Aqsa mosque to the left (grey dome) and the Dome of the Rock in the centre (golden dome).

The Temple Mount is a vast man-made platform about 300 x 500m (some 35 acres or 15 hectares), bounded on two (originally three) sides by the Old City of Jerusalem. In fact it is a vast temenos (Gk), a Classical temple substructure, rising as much as 40 metres (130 ft) above bedrock in places and forming a roughly level area around the peak of a low hill. An aerial photo, taken from a balloon in the early 20th century, shows the Temple Mount in the context of the walled Old City of Jerusalem before the city's modern expansion to the west, while a topographical map shows the underlying contours. The plans below show the Temple Mount as it is today (left), compared with a conjectural plan of the Second Temple as it may have appeared around 70AD (right), immediately before its destruction by the Romans. Previous to this, the Temple Mount had been the site of the Jewish temple for over 1000 years.

(click on the drawings to enlarge them)

The First Temple

According to the Old Testament, the first temple was constructed on the Temple Mount (Heb. Har ha-beit , lit. 'Mount of the house') after King David acquired the site and constructed an altar on the peak of Mount Moriah, a low hill between the Kedron and Tyropean valleys which was the site of a Jebusite threshing floor (2 Chron. 3.1, 2 Samuel 24). Mount Moriah already had important associations as a place of sacrifice due to Abraham's near-sacrifice of his son Isaac nine hundred years before on a mountain in the 'region of Moriah' (Gen.22.2). David carried out a sacrifice and designated the site for the temple, receiving the plans for it by divine inspiration but was himself forbidden from carrying out the building work due to his military background (1 Chron. 22.1-8, 28.11-12).

Like the biblical Tabernacle and the Garden of Eden long before, the temple was designed primarily as a meeting place between God and mankind, a totally inclusive worldwide 'place of prayer for all peoples'. In the ancient world temples often provided a picture of spiritual realities and in biblical times the temple was also (as the Temple Mount continues to be) a focus of national unity for the nation of Israel. In addition the temple functioned as a national bank, a royal chapel for the kings of Judah, a centre for education and the arts and even, occasionally, as a defensive citadel. The tensions which developed between these subsidiary roles and its original primary purpose as a universal place of prayer provide the background for the historical books of the Old Testament.

Although King David brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6) and accumulated vast amounts of building materials, the actual construction was carried out by his son, King Solomon, according to the first book of Kings (chs. 5-8) and the second book of Chronicles (chs. 2-7), so that the First Temple is also known as Solomon's Temple. Construction is believed to have begun around 1000 BC and is described as having taken 7 years, with a massive work force of 153,000, under a Phoenician architect named Hiram.

Solomon's Temple played a central role in the history of ancient Israel for 400 years but was largely destroyed on 9 Ab 586/7 BC by the neo-Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, who transported its treasures to his capital at Babylon (modern Iraq), along with many of the surviving priests, leaving the temple in ruins and the Temple Mount desolate.

The Second Temple

Some 70 years later, the first restoration of the temple was initiated by the Persian king Cyrus the Great and, despite considerable opposition from the surrounding peoples, the temple was eventually rebuilt on the original Temple Mount foundations by Zerrubabel between 535-515 BC (Ezra 3-6). The Second Temple, also known as Zerrubabel's Temple, was initially much less impressive than Solomon's Temple, but was visited by Alexander the Great and continued to operate throughout the Hellenistic period, until its defilement by the Greek king Antiochus Epiphanes provoked the Maccabean revolt of 167 BC. This initiated the Hasmonean period of Jewish independence, until the Temple Mount was captured by the Idumean and later Jewish king Herod 'the Great', in 37 BC.

To consolidate his power over the Jews, silence religious opposition and establish his name, Herod started a lavish building programme to restore and extend the Second Temple, advertising it as an authentic restoration according to the original biblical specifications. A construction joint in the east wall shows where Herod extended the original Temple Mount to form a massive basilican hall or stoa. Completed by his dynastic successors, the project seems to have amounted more or less to a total rebuilding and included extensions of the Temple Mount to the south and west, access stairways, bridges and subways. Beginning in 19 BC, the project employed some 18,000 builders and lasted throughout the New Testament period, as mentioned in John 2.20. When finally complete in 63 AD, the renovated Second Temple, now known as Herod's Temple, had been transformed into the largest temple complex in Classical antiquity, a building that amazed and intrigued Romans and Greeks and inspired the awed admiration even of Jews who were familiar with it (Mark 13.1). Above are pictures of Avi Yonah's model of the Second Temple at the Holy Land Hotel in Jerusalem.

Despite its splendour Herod's Temple enjoyed a tenuous existence as a rallying point for Jewish zealots during the Roman occupation, leading to repeated incursions by Roman troops (eg. Luke 13.1, Acts 21), only tolerated by the Pharisees and the ruling elite of the Saducees because they feared the loss of national identity which the destruction of the temple would bring. Despite this, only 7 years after the restoration work was finally completed the temple was indeed burnt and systematically demolished by the Romans as part of suppressing the First Jewish Revolt, which had been prompted by Procurator Florus robbing the temple treasury. In a graphic fulfillment of Jesus' prophesy of Luke 21.6, the Roman military engineers swept the Temple Mount clean of the magnificent buildings that had adorned it, swamping the shops in the surrounding streets with rubble. Titus' arch in the Forum in Rome celebrates the victory over the Jewish Zealots, showing a typical Jewish menorah or golden lampstand like those which his army looted from the temple in 70AD, being carried in triumphal procession. The nearby Colosseum was largely built by Jewish captives.

Jesus and the Temple

The New Testament is a major documentary source for understanding the Second Temple and the archaeology of the Temple Mount. Jesus clearly held the temple in the highest respect. Having been presented there by Mary and Joseph as a baby he later called it his Father's house when he was found there at the age of 12, his first recorded words in the New Testament referring to the temple as 'my Father's house' pointing to his deity (Luke 2.49). During his years of mission he taught regularly in the temple courts and approved people giving offerings to the temple treasury (Luke 21). On two occasions he used force to clear the Gentiles' court of commerce and preserve the sanctity of the Temple Mount, the first such 'cleansing of the temple' being in 26 AD, when the restoration project had already taken 46 years (John 2.20). Jesus' justification of his action, that they had made the temple a 'den of robbers' was a chilling reference to Jeremiah's prophesy (Jer. 7.11ff) of the destruction of the First Temple, while his reference to it as a 'house of prayer' was a reminder that the temple was originally meant to be available to all mankind, as described in Isaiah 56.3-8.

Nevertheless, Jesus, as the Messiah, made it clear that his message was 'greater than the temple' (Matthew 12.6). He was characterised at the beginning of his 3 year mission, as 'the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world', ie. the ultimate substitutionary sacrifice, which would by implication render the temple service and sacrifices redundant; and he told his disciples that they would come to see him in place of the temple, as the patriarch Jacob's 'house of God, the gateway of heaven', in other words, Jesus pointed to himself as the ultimate, unique, place of access to God (Genesis 28.17, John 1.29, 51).

This close identification with the temple was also expressed in his revolutionary challenge to the authorities that if the temple was destroyed, he would rebuild it in three days -a clear prophetic reference to his own victory over death. Ironically, the fear that the temple might indeed be destroyed was the main motivation for the authorities' conspiracy to kill him and his arrest, and was also the basis of the main charge brought against him by the Jewish supreme court. While being crucified he was mocked for this (Mark 14.58, 15.29).

At the exact moment of his death the great veil or curtain of the temple which concealed the Holy of Holies, and which Josephus records as a handbreadth thick - some 100mm (4") - was miraculously ripped apart; a visual demonstration that Jesus had literally opened the way up to God through his sacrificial death. The powerful symbolism of this message would have been readily appreciated by the priests, and the New Testament records that many of them became believers (Matthew 27.51, Acts 6.7). After Jesus' death, the New Testamewnt records that his side was pierced by a Roman soldier and 'blood and water' flowed out, as from the 'blood passages' which were used to drain the Temple Mount after sacrifices (John 19.34, Deuteronomy 12.27).

If the present, alienated, state of the Temple Mount is a gauge of Israel's national relationship with God as the Bible suggests (1Kings 9.9), then it also points to Jesus the Messiah, whose sacrifice finally made the temple unnecessary. The New Testament teaches that the new dwelling place of God's Spirit is in the individual believer's body and the corporate 'living temple' of the universal church community, which has replaced the temple and temple service (1 Cor 6.19, 1 Peter 2.5), demonstrated by references such as Hebrews 9.11 and Revelation 11.19 ff. Nevertheless, the Jewish church of the New Testament did not immediately abandon the temple but continued to meet there regularly even after Jesus' ascension. As long as 30 years after this, the Apostle Paul was arrested while attending the temple services, which he, with the other apostles, continued to view as one of Israel's special privileges as God's chosen nation (Ro.9.4) He preached to the Jewish crowd from the staircase in the NW corner (Acts 22).

However, Christianity had prepared the early church for the destruction of the temple in AD70 by providing a more enduring alternative, and the Jerusalem church survived the destruction of the temple by fleeing to Pella in Jordan in obedience to Jesus' prophetic command in Luke 21.20, just before the city was finally surrounded by the Roman legions. Nevertheless, the Temple Mount remains important to Christians both for understanding the historical context of the New Testament, and also as an architectural picture of heavenly realities.

The History of the Temple Mount since AD 70…

The history of the Temple Mount following AD70 requires much further research. The destruction of the temple was of course not the first nor by any means the last attempt to extinguish Judaism, but it had a marked effect on the development of both Judaism and Christianity, which became gradually more polarised. Synagogues, established after the destruction of the First Temple, became more important for Jews, though churches continued to meet in homes for several centuries, often secretly due to periodic waves of persecution. Meanwhile the Quadra or 'square' as the Temple Mount was known, was apparently left as a ruined reminder of the power and vengeance of Rome. Those who had survived the fall of the city were dispersed throughout the Empire and used as slave labour in the construction of monuments like the Colosseum. In time, however, they were gradually allowed back to weep and pray by the Temple Mount wall, which acquired special significance as the reminder of the vanished temple. The original 'Wailing' wall is believed to have been at the eastern, rather than the western side of the Temple Mount.

The continuing importance of the temple, even in a state of ruination, and the increasing popularity of pilgrimages to Jerusalem for Jews and early Christians was what probably prompted the architect-Emperor Hadrian's plan to build a temple to the chief Roman deity, Capitoline Jupiter, on the Temple Mount in 131AD. As the deity's pontifex maximus, or high priest, he may have imagined that this would enable him to gain control of Judaism and Christianity in one swoop, but the plan backfired badly when it sparked the Second Jewish Revolt led by Simeon Bar Kochba. After the brutal suppression of this by the Romans in 137AD Jerusalem is believed to have been substanitally demolished and refounded as a Roman colonia, renamed Aelia Capitolina in honour of Hadrian and his shrine, which was presumably constructed in some form on the Temple Mount. Tel Aviv architect Tuvia Sagiv has shown that the relationship and plans of the Dome of the Rock and the Aqsa mosque may parallel those of the temple of Jupiter at Baalbek, though the only feature specifically mentioned by pilgrims in the early fourth century was an equestrian statue of Hadrian said to have been erected over the site of the Holy of Holies.

With the Christianisation of the Roman Empire in the fourth century, Hadrian's temple probably became neglected like many other pagan temples. Christian pilgrims in the mid 300s suggest the Temple Mount was empty in fulfillment of Jesus' prophesy of Matthew 23.38. The Emperor Julian the Apostate's plan to use his imperial architect Alypius of Antioch and the Jewish community to rebuild the temple as an affront to Christians died, with him, in 363. However it seems inconceivable that Constantine's foundation of the the church of the Holy Sepulchre (326) and the massive church building programmes of his mother the Empress Helena which followed this in the early 300s, Eudocia (mid 400s) and Justinian 'the Great' (527-) all entirely ignored the Temple Mount, which by 333 at the latest was a established as a place of Christian pilgrimage. Unfortunately, the only archaeological evidence that could throw any light on the appearance of the Temple Mount at this period, the Madeba mosaic map of Jerusalem dating from 563, is missing the relevant portion, which was inadvertently destroyed when it was discovered in 1896. Nevertheless it seems more than likely that the Dome of the Rock and perhaps also the Aqsa were originally designed as Byzantine Christian churches like those constructed in this period at almost every other pilgrimage site throughout the near east. In the case of the Temple Mount the Byzantine buildings may also have incorporated the remains of Hadrian's pagan temple, or even elements from the Second Temple itself, the re-use of fine masonry and columns from previous structures being typical of the period. The Temple Mount still contains much evidence of early masonry, both in the form of loose architectural details such as columns and elaborately carved capitals, as well as re-used details like those on the Golden Gate.

In addition, the design of both the Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock have close parallels with other early Byzantine basilicas and domes, or martyria, such as S. Appolinare in Ravenna (493), S. Stephano in Rome (470) and S. Vitale in Ravenna (526), and also reflect the relationship between the dome and basilica of the Holy Sepulchre church, the traditional site of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection in the western part of the Old City of Jerusalem. Perhaps Justinian's fabled remark: 'Solomon I have surpassed you', on completion of the greatest Byzantine church of all, the multi-domed Hagia Sophia in Istanbul (532-7) contains an oblique reference to the Dome of the Rock. If the Temple Mount was indeed a place of Christian pilgrimage during the centuries of Byzantine rule, it would explain the archaeological evidence of multi-storey pilgrim hostels of this period adjoining the south wall. It would also explain why it was to the Temple Mount that the Emperor Heraclius returned with the true cross on his return from defeating the Persians in 629, entering via the eastern or Golden Gate. However, only 8 years after this Jerusalem fell to the Arab army of Caliph Umar and the Byzantine history of the site was all too soon forgotten.

Islam and the Temple Mount

Muhammed probably visited the Temple Mount in his early life and would have been aware of its historic importance to Jews and Christians, however it only receives a brief mention in the Qur'an in connection with the tradition of his dream or vision of a Night Journey (Sura XVII.1). In this, the Prophet travels to the 'remote mosque' (masjid al-Aqsa), traditionally identified as the Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount. Some Islamic scholars believe this was based on an actual visit to Jerusalem in 623AD, 1AH). Since the Qur'an is believed to have been completed by 650 the tradition of the night journey suggests that the Temple Mount may already have been a place of pilgrimage for Muslims even during Mohammed's lifetime, echoing its importance for Christians and Jews. This was further strengthened by its specification as the first qibla, or place to which the prayers of Muslims were to be directed. After he was rejected by the Jews the qibla was transferred to the Ka'aba at Mecca, underlining Muhammed's determination to recapture his home town (which he did in 630). The power base of Islam was henceforth consolidated in the Hijaz, in preparation for the further military expansions that followed his death in 632.

Caliph Umar, who succeded Abu Bakr in 633 and captured Jerusalem four years later, is said to have established a mosque on the Temple Mount capable of holding 3000 people, renaming the site the 'Haram es-Sharif ' (the 'holy sanctuary' - the Arabic word haram is close to the Greek hieron, 'temple'). Described as 'crude work' by the French bishop Arculf who saw it on his pilgrimage in 680, Umar's mosque was probably no more than a makeshift extension to an already existing basilica on the site of the present Aqsa mosque to enable it to accommodate the Muslim army.

Umar is said to have forced the Christian Patriarch Sophronius to grovel before him on the Temple Mount but the idea that he found it being used as a rubbish dump is probably a later invention to portray the new faith as restoring a neglected religious heritage. Not until 691-2 did Caliph Abd al-Malik employ Syrian artists to decorate the interior of the Dome of the Rock with mosaic pictures of the Byzantine crown jewels and inscriptions in Kufic script claiming the building as his work and denying the central Christian doctrines of the Trinity and the Deity of Christ. In the 800s Caliph al-Mamun's name replaced Abd al-Malik's in the inscriptions, also claiming credit for the building, but in this case the date in the earlier inscriptions remained to reveal the fraud. Abd al-Malik's son and successor al-Walid similarly claimed credit for building the Aqsa. The Dome of the Rock that we see today is covered in marble cladding, looted from the church of the Nativity in Bethlehem (330), modern Persian tiles and an Egyptian annodised aluminium dome added in the 1960s, obscuring its construction to the point where it is almost impossible to imagine its original appearance as a Byzantine building.

By the eighth century, the Arab armies having annexed much of the territory of the previous Byzantine and Persian empires, dynastic and tribal rifts were already beginning to appear in Islam and the Damascus-based caliphate promoted the Haram es-Sharif as a rival attraction to Mecca and Medina. In support of this, the Hadith or traditions of the Prophet were expanded to include the night-ride on the winged horse al-Buraq and ascension to heaven on a ladder of light (echoing Jesus' ascension from the nearby Mount of Olives, recorded in the first chapter of Acts, and the Apostle Paul's vision of heaven in 2 Cor. 12). Meanwhile Christians or Jews who strayed onto the Temple Mount were offered the choice of 'Quran or Sword', ie conversion to Islam or death.

The Crusades

Despite discrimination and occassional violent persecution, growing numbers of Christian pilgrims continued to visit the Holy Land during the early Middle Ages. After 'mad' caliph al-Hakim demolished Constantine's Holy Sepulchre church in 1009, increasingly brutal treatment of the pilgrims, coupled with political instability in the Muslim world, finally provoked Pope Urban II's call for the First Crusade on 27 November 1095 at Clermont, repeated throughout France and Italy over the following years. As well as restoring free access to the holy sites of Jerusalem, in medieval eyes the centre of the world, Urban was motivated by a desire to unite the church behind his papacy to overcome the claims of the anti-pope Clement III. As a religious movement the crusades were an unprecedented and shocking departure from the teachings of Jesus, who, unlike Muhammed, had stressed that his kingdom was 'not of this world' and even prevented his disciples from defending him when he was arrested. However, as a belated response by the European nations to the centuries of jihad which preceded them, the crusades at least brought about the final expulsion of Islamic armies from Europe by the end of the seventeenth century.

The First Crusade may have shown just how far the Roman Catholic church had already departed from the New Testament, but Islamic chroniclers of the time do not use the term 'crusade' or make much of the capture of Jerusalem in 1099 by the 'Frankish infidel' forces. Rather, it was viewed as a realitvely minor incursion, and the Latin kingdom of Outremer which was established soon settled into the style of other middle eastern states, taking its place in the complex mixture of shifting political alliances that characterised the region, while tolerating a wide range of religious allegiance and practice. The Latin Kingdom brought with it an explosion of building activity, paralleling the Gothic building boom that was also under way in the Isle de France, with over 50 new churches built in Jerusalem alone. As part of this, the Temple Mount was reclaimed by the Christians and the Dome of the Rock was dubbed 'Solomon's Temple' in recognition of its historic associations. The rock itself was surrounded by the fine wrought iron railing which still exists, to protect it from being chipped away by pilgrims. An elaborate Augustinian priory was constructed in the northern half of the Temple Mount.

In 1119 King Baldwin II handed over the southern half of the Temple Mount, containing the Aqsa, now known as 'Solomon's Palace', to a new order of knights, Hughes de Payen's Order of Poor Knights of the Temple of Solomon, also known as the Order of the Temple, or The Knights Templar. The Templars were a kind of monastic counter-terrorist force set up specifically to protect Christian pilgrims from attack by radical Islamic groups of fedayin such as the Assasins (whose name derived from the hashish that fuelled their operations). Well financed by 'temples' or manors all over Europe, and served by a network of round churches designed to evoke the Dome of the Rock, the Templars energetically repaired and redeveloped their headquarters at the southern end of the Temple Mount, over almost a century of occupation rebuilding the porch of the Aqsa and repairing the vaulted substructures beneath the SE corner, which they used as stables and stores and called 'Solomon’s Stables’. To protect the rock in the Dome of the Rock from being chipped away by Christian pilgrims seeking souvenirs, they constructed an elaborate iron railing around it.

However, some of the Templar's associates, unable to restrain themselves from warfare, were a constant irritant to the neighbouring states and this inevitably provoked retaliation, while it provided a convenient pretext for the ambitions of a new dynastic founder, a Kurdish general from Tikrit in modern Iraq, called Salah ed-Din (Saladin). Using the theme of jihad to unite a revived Sunni Islam behind him, Saladin recaptured Jerusalem in 1187.

The Later Middle Ages

The Temple Mount which Saladin captured was described by a Muslim chronicler as 'crammed full with new buildings'. He immediately excluded all Christians and installed his pulpit in the Aqsa in fulfillment of his jihad vow, beginning a process of re-islamicisation that has conitinued to this day, with a 12th century crusader hall adjoining the east wall of the Aqsa being quietly demolished as recently as the 1970s, and even more recently the wholesale clearance of Solomon's stables including many ancient artefacts. As previously, the new occupiers also re-used building materials and numerous fragments of crusader masonry are still visible in Old City buildings around the Temple Mount, including some fine architectural details, many with characteristic masons' marks and diagonal combed dressing.

After the Third Crusade in 1192 access for Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem was restored, while for a short period between 1229 and 1244, after the Fifth Crusade, the city (though not the Temple Mount itself) was again under Frankish control, until its final recapture by the Egyptian sultan.

Under the period of Mamluk rule which followed this (1250-1516), a revival of Islamic interest in the Temple Mount led to the construction of a number of madrassas or religious schools and tombs (turbas) around the perimeter (some employing the re-used crusader masonry details). The Ottoman Turks, who captured Jerusalem in 1517 were much less concerned with the Temple Mount however, and as their empire declined in the late C18, so it once again became possible for Jews and Christians to visit the historic site.

The Temple Mount in the 19th and 20th century

The first measured plan of the Temple Mount was prepared in 1833 by a British cavalry officer called Frederick Catherwood, who having befriended the Ottoman governor, entered the still forbidden area with two colleagues, pretending to have the authority of the Pasha. The artist David Roberts also penetrated in disguise in 1839, and an increasing number of European visitors were allowed in during the 1850s, usually for payment. Finally the Temple Mount was surveyed in considerable detail in 1864-5, by Captain Wilson of the Royal Engineers. His 1:500 scale survey, published by the British Ordance Survey, remains the only full and accurate survey of the site including the massive underground water cisterns contained within the substructure and our survey is based on it. Investigations sponsored by the Palestine Exploration Fund around the Temple Mount were carried out from 1868 by Captain Warren (later General Sir Charles Warren), who boldly excavated a number of shafts and tunnels in the rubble and debris which had built up against the retaining walls, predecessors of the 1974 Western Wall tunnel dug by the Israeli Ministry of Religious Affairs. These investigations prompted renewed appreciation of the breathtaking scale and extent of the original Temple Mount walls, which had become buried over the centuries to over half their height in places.

The only archaeological investigation that has ever been carried out on the Temple Mount itself appears to have been a secret excavation in the Dome of the Rock in 1911 by Captain Montague Parker, in disguise and at night; brought to a premature halt by a riot when it was discovered. Since the nineteenth century further archaeology, even after the historic recapture of the Temple Mount by the Israeli army in the 6-Day War in 1967, has been restricted to the exterior areas on the south and west sides of the Temple Mount, where a wealth of pre-70 AD shopping streets, staircases and bridges have been uncovered from the tumbled rubble of the upper parts of the Temple Mount walls. So far, however, no confirmed remains of the temple itself have been found, presumably because these would have been in the upper layers of debris and the high quality of the masonry would have ensured they were thoroughly quarried for re-use in subsequent re-buildings of the city. All attempts to investigate the subterranean vaults, cisterns and passages actually within the Temple Mount platform itself, or even to discuss the archaeology of the site, have been rigorously opposed by the Islamic council or waqf that Israel left in control of it after the 6-Day War. This appears to be due to the fear that archaeology will confirm the Temple Mount as the site of the Jewish temple and hence undermine (literally) the Muslim claim that it is a thoroughly Islamic site. The Temple Mount is therefore one of the most important, yet paradoxically least understood, archaeological sites in the world.

Documentary Evidence for the Temple

Documentary evidence for the appearance of the Jewish temples is very limited. In addition to the Old Testament description of the Tabernacle in the book of Exodus which provides an important parallel, the temple is described in some detail in the books of Kings and Chronicles and there are a number of other Old Testament references that throw light on the arrangement of the temple buildings. There are also a number of important New Testament references, as well as later writings which refer to the temple, such as those of Josephus and Jewish religious texts in the Talmud and Mishnah, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, which provide pointers to the layout and dimensions of the complex of buildings which occupied the Temple Mount.

From these, it is clear that the Temple Mount was surrounded by high walls with gateways approached by a series of steps, bridges (such as Wilson's arch) and subways from the city below. Most of the interior was occupied by a Great or Gentiles' Court which was open to all and surrounded by double colonnades. This included, on the east side, Solomon's porch (mentioned in John 10.23, as well as in Acts 3.11 and 5.12) and on the south, Herod's massive stoa basilica. The Gentiles' Court was separated from the inner courts of the temple by a warning-barrier called the soreg, beyond which non-Jews were not permitted to pass (mentioned in Paul's letter to the Ephesians, 2.14). The inner courts of the temple had walls and gates and a floor level about 5m higher than the Gentiles' Court, roughly corresponding to the podium on which the Dome of the Rock stands. Internally the inner courts were divided up into areas accessible to women, men, Levites and priests, in that order on approaching the temple. The central feature was the sacrifical altar standing in front of the massive temple building itself. Dripping with gold, this contained only two chambers. The largest was the Holy Place, a hall containing the altar of incense, lamps and tables where priests made daily incense offerings as recorded in Luke chapter 1. Beyond this, behind a curtain known as the veil, was the Holy of Holies, a single room accessible only to the High Priest as a representative of the people, on the Day of Atonement each year. Until the destruction of Solomon's temple this was the resting place for the Ark of the Covenant containing the two stone tablets of the Ten Commandments received by Moses on Mount Sinai, but by the time of the Second Temple the Holy of Holies was empty.

According to the Jewish historian Josephus, who would have known it well, the facade of Herod's Temple was c.50m (160 ft) high, Zerrubabel's Temple having been 30m high. In comparison, 2 Chronicles 3 gives a height of 120 cubits or 60m (c.200ft) for the stone tower or pylon which fronted Solomon's Temple. The temple was clearly an impressive structure, even for Jews at the time as indicated by Jesus' disciples' remark in Mark 13.1, where they called Jesus attention to its magnificence and massive stones. Pictorial evidence for the actual appearance of Herod's Temple includes a 30 AD coin of Herod Philip from Caesarea and the shekels minted between 131-4 AD during the Second Jewish Revolt, ie. within living memory of its destruction. These show a tetrastyle or distyle-in-antis columned or pilastered facade with a tall arched entrance, a design confirmed by early 4th century wall paintings in synagogues at Dura Europos, Beth Shean and Khirbet Susiiya, as well as gilt glassware of a similar date in the Vatican Museum and 7th century wall paintings in the Theotokos chapel on Mount Nebo in Jordan. Our reconstruction above, which compares the facade of Herod's Temple with the Dome of the Rock, is based on these sources.

Archaeology of the Temple Mount

Numerous fragments of pottery associated with the temple sacrifices have been found by Israeli archaeologists around the Temple Mount and in spoil dug out of its subterranean chambers by the Islamic authorities, but surprisingly little remains of the temple complex itself. This lack of direct archaeological evidence for the temple paradoxically increases the archaeological potential and importance of the Temple Mount itself.

Incidental archaeological evidence includes the enclosure of the cave of the Machpelah at Hebron, a walled structure begun by Herod in 23BC, a few years before the rebuilding of the temple, may provide pointers to the original appearance of the Temple Mount enclosing wall, comprising a tall stone wall decorated with pilasters. Funerary monuments around Jerusalem dating from the Hasmonean and Herodian period, such as Zechariah's Tomb and Absalom's Pillar in the Kedron Valley below the Temple Mount, may similarly provide glimpses of the design of parts of the complex. The large scale and architectural sophistication of these monuments is often overlooked in conjectural reconstructions.

Portico columns from the Gentiles' Court, including some carved out of single stones, can still be seen in quarries in the environs of Jerusalem and many column fragments having been re-used in later buildings around the Temple Mount. In the 1860s Phoenician masons’ marks were found on the lower courses of the eastern wall of the Temple Mount, lending weight to the view that at least part of the structure is the authentic base of the First Temple and hence one of the most ancient masonry structures in the world. In 1969 the north west corner stone of the Temple Mount walls was found with a Hebrew inscription 'to the place of trumpetting..' (according to Josephus, trumpets were used by the priests to announce the Sabbath). Until the whole of the Temple Mount can be studied by archaeologists, the dry-joined stones of the Temple Mount retaining wall itself must continue to provide the strongest link with the temple. Finely cut with characteristic rock faced, 'stugged' or hammer-dressed bosses, and smooth marginal drafts, these massive limestone blocks are laid to a precise batter with paper-thin dry joints, and the weight of one stone alone has been calculated as 400 tons. Towards the south eastern corner or the Temple Mount there is a vertical joint, known as the 'seam', clearly the corner of a pre-existing retaining structure to which Herod added his stoa basilica, and hence either the corner of the earlier second temple of Zerubabbel or Solomon's temple itself.

It is likely that the podium on which the Dome of the Rock stands corresponds with the inner courts of the temple complex. Inside the Dome of the Rock the peak of Mount Moriah, ie. 'the rock', known in Hebrew as 'the foundation', appears jutting above floor level with tooling possibly indicating that it was shaped to form part of the base of the original temple altar, while the cave and passages which visitors are shown beneath the rock are likely to have been part of the drainage system of 'blood passages' by which blood from the temple sacrifices was washed away from the holy places. This identification of the rock with the altar may be supported by the strange reference in Revelation chapter 6 portraying the souls of Christian martyrs ie. those who had been slain sacrificially, 'under the altar' and a cavity in the cave floor is still known as the 'well of souls'.

Other known architectural features of archaeological importance in the Temple Mount include the magnificent domed ceilings of the Double gate, now walled-up and inaccessible below the Aqsa mosque, where 'in' and 'out' subways were used by the streams of worshippers 'ascending to the courts of the Lord'. Several other gates, including the Triple gate, Warren's gate and Barclay's gate are similarly set below the pavement level of the Temple Mount, and blocked up by the Islamic authorities.

Although much remains to be investigated on and within the Temple Mount, impressive and substantial remains of the original surrounding walls have been exposed externally by Israeli archaeologists on the south, east and west sides. In addition to the historic masonry itself, the east wall has a construction joint (know to archaeologists as 'the seam') between the platform of the earlier Second Temple, or possibly of the First Temple itself, and the later Second Temple, showing how Herod extended it to accommodate his stoa basilica, a massive hall that reared above the south side of the Temple Mount on the site of the present Aqsa mosque.

Many of the gates and bridges that originally gave access to the Temple Mount survive, some still in use. Original gates revealed by excavation or above-ground archaeology include, on the south, the Hulda gates comprising the Triple and Double gate both approached by a monumental staircase; on the west, Robinson's arch, Barclay's gate, the Chain gate or Coponius' gate (over Wilson's Arch) and Warren's gate (the subway from it converted by the Mamluks to a cistern); on the north, the triple Taddi or Sheep gates (named after the sacrificial animals that were brought in by them from the Pool of Bethesda to the north); on the east, the Golden or Susa gate, and the Horse gate (including an arch springing like Robinson's for a bridge or staircase). Herodian masonry survives in most of the Temple Mount walls: At the north west corner is the historic site of the Antonia or Baris fortress, used as barracks from Roman until modern (Ottoman) times but now a school perched on a rocky knoll overlooking the Temple Mount. Beam holes in the rock face below this are at a height which approximately corresponds to that of the temple colonnade. At the corner, where the Temple Mount wall survives to roof height, the cliff is cut back to allow for stairs descending from the barracks into the north colonnade: The apostle Paul is recorded as having preached to a mob from these stairs in Acts 21.

Reconstructions of the Temple

Many conjectural reconstructions of the appearance of the Temple Mount have been prepared since the Jewish temple was destroyed, reflecting the special significance of the site. Many of these are clearly fanciful, exploiting the temple to promote architectural and theological agendas more than the archaeological evidence, and a number of contrasting stylistic movements have been traced back to the Temple, including Rennaissance, Baroque, Neoclassical and Gothic styles. Just as the words of the Psalms of David are set to contemporary tunes which ensure their continuing relevance to each generation, so too, the biblical specifications of the temple have been repeatedly re-interpretated. The many reconstructions provide a unique overview of the development of Western architecture focussing as they do on a single building, the temple, and the same site of the Temple Mount.

The identification of the Dome of the Rock with Solomon's Temple, either by symbolic association with the site, or through misconception or misunderstanding of the textual evidence, led to the temple being interpreted as a domed building in many medieval reconstructions, for example Breydenbach's (1486), the Nurnberg Chronicle of 1492 and Hartmann Schedel's (1493); and illustrated as such in paintings such as Raphael's 'Espousal' (1504). It clearly influenced the design of the many circular Templar churches constructed throughout Europe during the middle ages, and it also influenced Bramante's Tempietto (1502-10), the dome that marks the place of St Peter's martyrdom and one of the seminal buildings of the Rennaissance. Borromiini's church of Sant Ivo dela Sapienza, Rome, has an octagonal plan like the Dome of the Rock, as well as cherubim and palm tree motifs reflecting the description of Solomon's Temple. The idea of the temple-as-dome probably also underpinned the views of architectural theorists such as Alberti (1452), Fillarette (1465) and Palladio (1570) who thought that church buildings should be circular and called them 'temples', a word later used by the Hugenots for their churches. The association of the Dome of the Rock with the temple continued well into the 19th century, where it appears in Sulpice Boiseriee's (1786-1851) 'Dome of the Grail' fantasy.

However, many during the Middle ages recognised that temple had not been circular. Biblical scholars such as Abraham ben Gaon of Soria, Solomon ben Raphael (1299) and Maimonides (1135-1204), produced reconstructions based much more closely on the textual evidence, Maimonides' commentaries being intended to promote the rebuilding of the temple and hasten the Messiah's coming. Medieval models of Solomon's Temple existed, for example at the monastery of Clonmacnoise (1170), confirming that the biblical descriptions were not simply subsumed into the design of churches, although medieval churches and cathedrals have many points of contact with the temple specifications. In his drawings, Richard of St Victor (d.1175) clearly reflected an archaeological understanding of the Temple Mount substructure, with its supporting vaults, and Petrus Comestor (1299) shows that he was not alone in this approach.

With the Reformation and an increased emphasis on the Bible, coupled with the Rennaissance obsession with Classical origins, came a resurgence of interest in the Temple. Some of the earliest detailed reconstructions were by Anton Koberger and Nicolaus de Lyra (1481). Calvin (1509-1564), one of the leading Reformers, adopted the word 'temple' for Protestant church buildings. Francois Vatable(1540) helped to popularise the biblical specifications, while Benedictus Arius Montanus (1593) prepared careful reconstructions for the Roman Catholic church, of a whole range of biblical structures including Noah's ark. Meanwhile, Christian Adrichom (1590) and others prepared detailed maps of Jersualem to encorage would-be pilgrims to the actual holy sites.

However, all were overshadowed by the monumental work of the Jesuit, Juan Bautista Villalpando (1596), who managed to gain the support of the Inquisition and the Pope against Montanus, although his drawings, lavishly funded by Philip II, were based on a cocktail of biblical sources, mixing the description in the book of Ezekiel with those of Solomon's and Herod's Temples, and including his idea of a perfect or Solomonic order of columns, previously suggested by Giacomo Soldati, ducal architect to Filiberto of Turin, as the origin of all the Classical orders.

Despite, or perhaps because of his flawed scholarship, Villalpando was followed by a flock of other reconstructions, including those of Georgi, Martin van Heenskerck, Matthias Haffenraffer (1613), Matthias Merian (1593-1650), G. Surenhusius (1630), Philibert de l'Orme, Freart de Chambray (1650), Claude Perrault (1678), Leonard Rauwolf (1681), Louis Maillet (1695), Bernard Lamy (1720) and Jan Luyken (1729). Meanwhile Protestant interpretations, like that of Samuel Lee (1659), continued to draw inspiration from the biblical descriptions and Montanus.

Architectural theorists such as Freart de Chambray ensured that the temple and its Solomonic order remained relevant to mainstream Classical architecture and further publicity was obtained by the elaborate models of the temple exhibited by Jacob 'Templo' Leon (1642), Johann Erasmus (1694), Gerhard Schott (1695 -his model is still in existence in Hamburg). Villalpando's best known follower was probably the eminent architect Fischer von Erlach (1721), whose treatise also included a reconstruction of the Tower of Babel.

These interpretations of the temple had a wide influence on architecture. For example there is little doubt that Villalpando's reconstruction influenced the design of Juan Bautista de Toledo's, Escorial (1559-84), the great palace complex of Phillip II near Madrid, completed by Villalpando's teacher, Juan de Herrera, to suggest Phillip as a monarch in the style of King Solomon. The bronze pillars of Bernini's Baldachino in St Peter's, which mark the apostle's tomb, also refer to the Jachin and Boaz pillars in front of Solomon's Temple, as do the twin pillars fronting Fischer von Erlach's Karlskirche in Vienna (1716-37), which was designed to combine biblical and Baroque influences with the Dome of the Rock theme, to show Emperor Charles VI as 'a second Solomon' (Watkin). The Adam brothers' Adelphi substructure (1768-72) may also have had temple connotations, based as Adam's style was, on the Emperor Diocletian's palace and mausoleum at Split (300 AD), an extraordinary annachronistic reflection of Ezekiel's temple specfications.

In Britain, Inigo Jones' friend, Sir Roger Pratt (1620-84), an architect who probably deserves more recognition than he has received to date, was directly influenced by the temple, although Samuel Lee's (1659) reconstruction gave it none of the Baroque affectations of Villalpando's reconstruction, which Christopher Wren described distainfully as 'a fine Romantick Piece...'. The antiquary William Stukeley shared a high view of the temple, as did Sir Isaac Newton (1728), whose own belief in divine order led him to propose it as the God-given exemplar for all other buildings. John Wood the elder, the architect of Bath, cited the temple as the true origin of all three classical orders, only suppressed by humanists, in his 'The Origin of Building, or the Plagiarisms of the Heathen Detected' (1741). Such speculation continued well into the 19th century, with Antonellis' reconstruction of the temple as a synagogue, and James Ferguson's free Classical design of 1878, one of the first archaeological reconstructions. Even one well known contemporary British architect, Quinlan Terry, has suggested Solomon's Temple as the divinely appointed source of Classical design.

While the reconstruction of Solomon's Temple must for the present remain firmly in the field of biblical and historical speculation, the existence of the Temple Mount and a growing body of archaeological evidence mean that the design of Herod's Temple can today be approached with some confidence. Well known modern reconstructions include those of Charles Melchior de Vogue (1864), James Ferguson (1878), Captain Warren (1884), Johann M Tenz (1890), Shaw-Caldecott and Chipiez (1890), Conrad Schick (1896), Emanuel Schmidt (1902), Vincent-Steve (1906), J G Wiles (1930), Watzinger (1935), Stevens (1962), Alec Garrard and many others. Michael Avi Yonah's 1970s model at the Holy Land Hotel in Jerusalem has been updated to reflect recent discoveries and is probably the most authoritative archaeological reconstruction to date, combining documentary and the latest archaeological evidence.

The Third Temple

Further strengthening the enduring cultural and architectural influence of the Temple, the Bible appears to envisage a Third Temple, described in some detail in chapters 40ff of the book of the 6th century BC prophet Ezekiel. Although some scholars have suggested Ezekiel's Temple was merely a wistful backward-looking, idealised vision of the destroyed Solomon's Temple, others point to features that obviously did not reflect the past, and were hardly practical if the intention was merely to promote the rebuilding of the temple by Zerubabel. The consensus seems to be that Ezekiel's Temple has not yet been built and the expectation that it might one day be has fuelled many reconstructions of this Third Temple. Perhaps the most fanciful is Henry Sulley's (1887) design for the temple: 'which is shortly to be erected in the land of Israel'. Ezekiel also describes the division of the land of Israel and the relationship of the temple complex with the city of Jerusalem. Some Christians view the Third Temple as the Millennial Temple which will be the focus of Christ's thousand-year rule of the world before the final descent of the New Jerusalem to earth. When this occurs there will be no longer be a need for a temple since God and man will dwell together in it in harmony again as in the Garden of Eden (Revelation 21.22).

However, before and the Ezekiel's Millennial Temple an alternative Third Temple appears to be envisaged by prophetic passages such as Daniel 9.27 & 2 Thess. 2.4, which anticipate a final defilement of the temple by the Antichrist half way through a 7 year treaty period leading up to the Battle of Armegeddon. Since this period is characterised in the New Testament by a great persecution of God's people, this temple is sometimes known to Christians as the Tribulation Temple. Because of such texts there is widespread expectation among Jews and Christians that the Temple Mount will eventually become the site of a rebuilt Jewish temple of some kind, a view that has received attention from many architects. While some propose an alternative site elsewhere on the Temple Mount, others have suggested a structure that somehow incorporates the Dome of the Rock. Still others suggest that the destruction of the present buildings by an earthquake may provide the opportunity for replacing the Dome of the Rock. One theory even proposed the 9/11 attacks were a Zionist pretext for demolishing the Aqsa mosque so that the temple could be built. It is said that plans have been prepared and even rumoured that materials have been made ready in the United States for shipping to Israel. Meanwhile, the temple service and rituals are believed to be being taught in some Jewish religious schools to prepare candidates for a revived priesthood.

Conclusion

The above is only the most superficial, provisional exploration of the Temple Mount and the buildings which stood on it. A vast amount still remains to be researched and discovered about this site of unique religious, cultural, historic and political significance, and its wider influence.

The Temple Mount and its history illustrates par excellence the power of an historic site to stimulate the imagination, fuel the emotions and inspire the aspirations of peoples. Both as a source of architectural innovation and as a memorial and a witness to historical events, which may be interpreted in widely different ways, it illustrates the complexity of researching and evaluating historic sites and the great importance of the past as the foundation for the future.

ROBIN KENT

NOTE | This article is Copyright. It provides general information only and no responsibility is accepted for errors or omissions. From 1977-8 Robin Kent was Architect to the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, working on and around the Temple Mount as a contributor to the BSAJ survey of Mamluk Jerusalem, published as Mamluk Jerusalem An Architectural Study (Michael Hamilton Burgoyne, 1987). He maintains an active interest in this fascinating and significant historical site, one of the most important cultural heritage sites in the world, and this article and the articles linked to it, summarise some of his subsequent research. The above includes information gleaned from a wide range of sources but the author is particularly indebted to Dr M Burgoyne, Professors Mazar and Ben Dov, Dr Leen Ritmeyer and Marta Ritmeyer, Tuvia Sagiv, Lambert Dolphin, Helen Rosenau, Stephen Rosenberg, Simon Goldhill and Asher Kaufman. We have not been able to source the copyright holders of all the material illustrated. The article is subject to ongoing revision and updating, and contributions and comments are very welcome.

Back to top | Chronology of the Temple | The Biblical Tabernacle | The Garden of Eden