locating Solomon's temple part 3.
I thought that finding the water channels ending with a pool
right next to the temple was probably the final thing to confirm this southern location for me
but to my delight there was even more surprises to come
when Herod the Great came into power over the Jews he desired to build a new temple the porch of
Herod's temple would be 100 cubits wide much wider than the old temple this required some adjustments
to be made in the width of the original platform created by Solomon it must also be widened the
platform included the temple courts woman's court and the portico on the east called Solomon's porch
this platform was called the way or street leading to the Holy of Holies
there was a hel or Chel a walkway on the south and north side of the old temple platform in
the mishna it says that Herod set the foundation stone for the new temple a
little more to the north and a little more to the west of the original temple in doing this
he actually caused the northern section of the temple compound to become smaller
the Mishna says that the southern section of the temple compound had the most open space
then the women's court followed by the northern section which had the least amount of open space
the only way for the northern section
to be made smaller is if the inner platform was increased in width towards the north by Herod
and a new chel built on the north side if my location for the temple is correct then there
should be evidence in the ruins on Warren's map to confirm it Warren shows the northeast corner
of the triple gate halls which would have been the northeast corner of the old platform
i marked out the size of Solomon's platform in red dashed lines this would have been
the original platform built by Solomon on this platform he built his port on the east
he had claimed the land as far as it could go and could go no further because of the valleys
on the east and west notice that the western hall ends with what looks like a nipple when I laid my
diagram over the top of the map I could see that the nipple fit perfectly into the opening
in Herod's northern inner gate his gate goes beyond the red dashed line of Solomon's platform
to me this shows that even though the double halls were made after 70 a.d there was still
enough of the old ruins of Herod's gate left to indicate an opening that could be dug through
however Solomon's gates would have been smaller and closer together along with the 10 cubit wide
chel beyond his north inner gate in this map we can see that Solomon's inner gates
and the north and south chel were within the parameters of the old platform Herod's temple was
to be built more to the north causing the platform and north inner gate to also be rebuilt more to
the north as you can see Herod's north inner gate was extended beyond Solomon's platform plus there
must be a chel a walkway on the north side of the platform extending the width of the platform
what appears to be about 20 cubits at a regular Hebrew cubit notice that this decreases the
northern section of the compound making it the smallest of the outer courts remember that Herod
the Great built the temple and upper courts and gates but the walls of its extended compound were
added later by his grandson and great-grandson and were not totally completed till around 66 AD
this would mean that the old walls of Solomon's temple remain standing for the protection
of the new temple so when it is said that the northern section was decreased in size by Herod
they were speaking about the compound within Solomon's old walls not Herod's extended compound
can i also show this through the ruins I think so notice the eastern passage of double halls
the one that extends further north ends as if going through a gate opening and then circles out
so where was the gate that they dug through it would have been the ruins
of Solomon's old north gate but this gets even more interesting for me it reveals how
Herod handled the problem of the temple being built more to the north than the old one was
and yet leaving the east gate of Solomon remaining in the same place how then could one see through
the east gate and also through the inner gate and into the temple itself the angle would be wrong
remedied just make the inner gate a double gate with a double wide opening
which here it did in this diagram you can see by the red dashed line that Solomon's gate
now sits directly across from the southern half of the double gate with the double wide opening
in this gate one would still be able to see into the temple and view the curtain
of the Holy of Holies with no problem and now let's look at the Ophel excavations beyond the
south wall the Ophel mound excavations began in 1968 soon after Israel got control of Jerusalem
at that time these ruins lay beneath tons of earth as we can see by this photo taken in 1923
a later side view of the same area reveals the ruins that were completely below ground
the wall cutting through these ruins cutting the Ophel mound in half is the Muslim city wall built
in the 15th century it meets up with the building erected by the crusaders in the 12th century
the crusaders building was built on the huge steps that led up to double gate these steps reveal a
lot about the Ophel mound they were originally cut into bedrock which protruded out of the earth this
is evidence of a gigantic rock mounding out of the ground at the top of this hill i believe
this rock to be the base of the threshing floor that king David bought and built his altar to god
and Josephus tells us that fort Antonia was built on the highest hill which overlooked the temple
and the temple overlooked the city if fort Antonia was built on the highest hill and overlooked the
temple then the temple was on a lower hill or mound on the same eastern ridge of Jerusalem
the lower mound is called the Ophel and the temple was built upon the Ophel
so let's begin this part of the study with the Ophel steps the Ophel steps were 215 feet
wide paved with smoothly trimmed stones and its foundation steps are cut into the bedrock
there appears to be 14 deep steps and 16 shallow steps the shallow steps are for stepping up to the
next level the large steps are where one would stop and pray before ascending to the next step
and it's the same as it was for the steps in the women's court that lead up to the eastern inner
gate at the top of the steps would then have been a terrace called the Chel a 15 foot wide walkway
which was bounded by the walls of the inner court according to Josephus There were 14 steps
leading up to the chel terrace the crusaders building hides most of double gate and a large
part of the western half of the steps and the chel I found even more proof in the ruins that
the southern half of Solomon's temple complex and Herod's extended courts lay beyond the south wall
Herod's wall foundations would most likely be thicker than Solomon's older wall the thinner
wall ends and the thicker begins at the same place where Herodian's extended walls would have begun
there is no way to know which earthquake in Israel's history caused the twisted mess in
the midst of the Ophel hill ruins but it seems as though it happened sometime before the
Muslims built their new city wall through the center of the ruins in the picture I rotated
the collapsed area and put things back together a little to get an idea of how it would have looked
pre-earthquake this allowed me to further identify the position of Herod's southern
gate which would have been 600 feet directly across from his northern gate Once the ruins are
adjusted like this then room for the gate can be seen the city wall was built right through
the center of it all As near as i can tell a wall on the other side of the city wall is the
other half of the southern gate
please continue with locating Solomon's temple part 4. thank you