locating Solomon's temple part two the gates of the temple were very large buildings there
were two gates in Herod's northern wall the north gate and the todi gate the gates special lentel
built from two stones one leading on the other together formed a triangle of the todi gate
Warren's description of cistern six is that its shape inside was like a
hollow truncated pyramid very similar these two underground cisterns buildings number 36
and 6 seem to be the ruins of Herod's North gate and todi gate
in the western wall there were four gates one is called Robinson's arch on the map
it entered the mount by means of a huge staircase
600 feet across from this gate is the underground halls called triple gate on Warren's map
inside triple gate on the western side part way up the passageway was what appeared to be a huge
lentel of a gate this gate would have been the true east gate to the temple
this gate can also be seen on sir Charles Wilson's map notice that the Muslims named this gate on
the east the gate of Elias but that lentel and the ruins below would have been the gate which entered
directly into the woman's court of the temple what this means is that these vaulted halls of triple
gate on the maps were actually Solomon's porch or portico that he built to the east of the temple
house there are three archways of what are called triple gate in the south wall of the temple mount
the two on the right would have been how people entered and exited the porch from the south
and from there entered the east gate into the woman's court the arch on the left the west
would have actually been inside the temple when Benjamin Mazar excavated the oval mounds
starting in 1967 ruins of stairs were found leading down from the two arches on the right only
there was a gap in the walkway between the arch on the left and the two arches on the
right in my theory this is because that gap was where Solomon's east wall once stood
this would make the inside hall on the left the west Solomon stoa which lined the eastern wall
inside the temple complex and the other two halls on the right east an arched open aired
entryway so to speak to the east gate the king's entrance because Solomon had built his palace
just south of this on the ophel mound and he entered through the east gate
into the temple complex the east wall that ran through this building would have consisted of
a series of arches on both sides of the east gate running north and south inside these halls
are full of tons and tons of dirt and debris leaving only the tops of the arches exposed
these halls do not lead up to the mount surface and never did to think that Solomon's porch might
still exist to this day buried beneath the surface of the temple mount is amazing to say the least
there is another set of arches in the southern wall that weren't called double gate the Jews
call these arches the Halda gates believing this gate to be the most southern gate of
Herod's temple complex only a small portion of one of these arches can be seen today
they were covered up when the crusaders built a building against the south wall in my theory this
is not the most southern gate of Herod's temple instead this gate would have been what is called
an inner gate of the temple the inner gates were the entrances to the men's court priest court
and the temple house itself this is how the double gate halls appear on Warren's map
Next is the same map with an overlay of my diagram
i believe these halls to be where the old inner gates were once located the inner south and north
gates with the men's court in between a single passage then continues to where Solomon's old
north gate would have been located to me the ruins are speaking quite clearly of what they
once were the archways lay deep below the al Aqsa mosque i don't believe these halls to have been
built by Herod they are of recycled stones and columns in fact they were built after the 70
AD destruction of the temple even though these great halls were built after 70 AD they were built
upon those things that remained from the first and second temple era such as the floor and steps
sir Charles Warren wrote that the passages only extended for 190 feet from the south wall
but when the mosque was built it appears that the passage was extended to its present length
of 260 feet but only on the east side
this means that the halls did not lead up to the temple platform when they were first built
to me it looks as though someone dug out the inner gates and the men's court to preserve the
area perhaps to create a place of Jewish prayer it definitely was built when no buildings
were on the mount above it so sometime after the temple of Jupiter was torn down in 325
AD the plaque from a statue at that time which stood before the temple of Jupiter can be seen
upside down in the wall above the arch of double gate perhaps the builders of these walls could
have been the Jews that were allowed to return to rebuild their temple in 360-63 AD the work stopped
when an earthquake hit and fire issued out of the ground many people were killed and maimed
the Muslims claimed that these walls were part of the first wooden mosque built on the mount that
collapsed during an earthquake but these halls are made of stone not of wood as the old mosque was
This sketch was drawn of the double gate halls as it might have looked when first built
moving on now to the southeast corner known as the section containing
Solomon's stables what an imposing site the southeast corner is trying to visualize the
mount without this corner at the time of Herod is difficult but that was the case
as i hoped to prove to you the upper portion of the wall all way around the mount was built
by the Muslims after 638 AD below that is the portion that was constructed by the Romans
in the lowest portion of the wall on the eastern side there is a straight joint in the wall where
the Hasmonean wall meets up with what is believed to be a Herodian wall built in the first century
the Hasmonean wall ending at this vertical line in the east wall tells us that their wall took a 90
degree turn westward at this point so the question is did Herod's descendants build the wall from the
Hasmonean wall all the way around to triple gate on the south wall or was it built at a later time
inside the lower section of this wall it is made up of terraced vaults the vaults are mistakenly
called Solomon stables dubbed so by the crusaders who used the upper vaults to stable their horses
in November 1868 captain Charles Warren of the British royal engineers dug a vertical
shaft around 90 feet down to the bedrock at the southeast angle of the temple mount platform
this sketch shows what they found Herod stones are unique in that they have a marginal dressing
meaning that each had a frame or margin chiseled around its edge in a Herod or Herodian built wall
we would see stones that have matching equal margins which the southeast corner does not have
this wall is made up of recycled Herod or herodian stones taken from somewhere else and used to build
this wall some of the stones even have mason marks on them the masons cut and marked the stones at
the quarry so that the builders could place them properly to create a specified building much like
a prefab house of today corner this section of the east wall was not built by Herodian builders
and of course the southeast corner of Solomon's stables didn't exist when Nehemiah was rebuilding
the city wall at that time one would have been able to see the east wall
of triple gate Solomon's porch the very edge of a steep hill also a bridge crossing the Kidron
valley the bridge of the red heifer would have started at Solomon's porch or portico
which contained the east gate and continued across to the mount of olives
this section of the east wall was most likely built by the Roman Emperor Hadrian around
130 to 135 AD he needed a large flat mount to build the temple of Jupiter complex on here
is an example of the temple of Jupiter complex in Lebanon just to get an idea of its size and shape
to accommodate such a huge temple similar to this one Hadrian's builders would have needed to
build up and increase the size of the mount at the southeast end if my theory is correct then
the best way to do this would be to build his south wall on the pre-existing
platform at the top of the huge steps of the Ophel a partial wall or what was left of it
would have already existed and he need only make it a much higher wall
the partial wall would have once been the inner wall surrounding Herod's temple and priest court
Emperor Hadrian would need only to build up and extend that wall to the triple gate building
Solomon's portico and then create a new southeast corner seen here as Solomon stables as you can
see in this photo if he tried to take his rectangle enclosure any further to the south
he would have to build very deeply into the kidron valley for his new southeast corner to
rebuild the outer wall of the former temple of the Jews seen in the white writing on the photo
would not work for that reason this would mean that the Romans were responsible for the size
and shape of the mount we see today of course the temple house was completely destroyed in 70 AD
long before the ground level of the temple mount was raised to this new level
a lower wall believed to have been built possibly by Herod's grandson extended all the way from
triple gate down to where the southeast corner is now the red heifer bridge would have gone
in between that wall and the Hasmonean wall the straight joint to build up the southeast corner
to accommodate the temple of Jupiter complex would require tearing down that bridge
Hadrian had to remove that part of the bridge from the straight joint upward to the portico
of Solomon and then build the terraced vaults it would require building a gate into this wall
which could then be reconnected with the bridge outside of the wall the arch and walled up arched
openings can still be seen in the wall today near the straight joint this bridge traversed
the kidron valley and from there one could look back and straight through the east gate to the
Holy of Holies Jewish people of the time desired to be entombed directly across from these gate
in a direct line from this arch are the tombs of what people call the tomb of Zechariah this tomb
was actually built in the first century for the high priest it would have been below the bridge
the Jewish cemetery continues outward from there please continue with part 3.