(Sergio) All right. This is exciting.
This is it. This is the entrance.
(Rhoda) Yeah.
Hey, are those shields for police?
(Sergio) Whoa!
♪ (music) ♪
This video is going to be unlike
anything else we have ever done,
primarily because the Temple Mount is a place
under very high political tension,
to such a degree that, upon entry,
we had to take a security briefing
by a police officer,
but also because we're going to show you
shocking, rare footage of what lies underneath
the Temple Mount structures.
(Rhoda) We actually attempted to come here before,
but each time, our entry was denied.
You see, this place has 12 non-sealed gates,
but most of them allow only Muslims to enter.
Non-Muslim visitors can only enter through one gate.
It is called Bab al-Magharbeh,
or in English, the Gate of the Moors.
And what makes things even more difficult
is that we can enter this gate only on certain days,
in certain hours, for a very limited time,
and under very strict rules.
(Sergio) But, finally, we were able to enter.
And even more than that,
we were able to get permission to document the experience
using our mobile phones.
And that is exactly what we're going to do in this video.
The first time on the Temple Mount!
I get goosebumps just thinking about it right now.
Using our 4K camera on the iPhones,
we will document the ascension on the ramp
that leads to the only gate we're allowed to enter
and show you raw footages of what it is like
to walk on the Temple Mount.
Wow, look at that! I can't believe we're here.
(Rhoda) We will walk the incredible Mount Moriah,
examining the modern and ancient structures,
such as the Dome of the Rock,
which is believed to have been built on top of the same rock
where Abraham was told to sacrifice his son, Isaac,
and the rock upon which it is believed
the Ark of the Covenant once stood as well.
(Sergio) Wow!
(Rhoda) We will also walk to the Golden Gate,
known as the Eastern Gate,
which had been sealed since the medieval times.
(Sergio) I thought it was just a gate, but it's bigger.
(Rhoda) Yeah. It looks like it has a building inside of it.
- A room of some sort. - (Sergio) Whoa.
And as a bonus, we will reveal to you
something that we found out in our research
that completely blew us away.
So join us on this extraordinary adventure
as we visit the Temple Mount
for the very first time in our lives.
So we are walking up the ramp that leads to the only gate
through which visitors can enter.
And entrance is allowed for a few hours a day.
But if you come after noon, like we did,
then you only have one hour: from 1:30 to 2:30 PM,
at least in the summer, 2020.
And upon entry,
there is a checkpoint with metal detectors
and a police officer who was really kind
and very welcoming towards us.
And he gave us a five-minute briefing
in which he explained to us the current high tension
that is on Temple Mount.
And he told us a few basic things:
That we should not hold hands.
We should have our shoulders and knees covered at all times.
He told us not to go into any buildings,
not to touch anything, not to talk to anyone,
and not to do any video interviews.
However, they did allow us to document the experience
on our mobile phones.
And that is why this video is going to be very different
from anything else we've done.
From now on, what you will see is what we saw the entire time,
from entrance to exit.
But since we could not speak much on camera,
we'll be doing the explanations in a narrative form.
So here we are, excited,
walking up the ramp to the Moors Gate
for the very first time in our lives.
This is the craziest entrance, babe.
All right. This is exciting.
This is it. This is the entrance.
(Rhoda) Yeah.
Hey, are those shields for police?
(Sergio) Whoa!
Right now we have to turn off the recording
and put down our phones
because there is another Israeli security checkpoint.
But think about how sensitive the security situation is here
that they must have riot shields
ready to be used at all times
by the entrance to the Temple Mount.
Thankfully, they're not being used at the moment,
and we can pass through the gate.
(man) Come, please.
(Rhoda) The voice you just heard
was uttered by a man from the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf,
the trust that controls and manages the Temple Mount.
He pulled me aside and asked me to put an extra cover on my shoulders
because my shawl was a bit see-through.
Thankfully, they had extra covers,
and now we're ready to go.
(Sergio) We can walk everywhere, he said, too.
We can walk inside.
If you were wondering: "Who is the authority here,
Israel, Jordan, or the Islamic Waqf?"
Well, at the moment,
it is kind of a joint operation.
The Temple Mount is policed by the State of Israel.
However, the daily administration of things
is managed by the Islamic Waqf,
which is primarily sponsored by Jordan.
So as we were walking the street,
we can almost feel this real sense of tension.
Babe, look!
(Rhoda) The Temple Mount is pretty large.
In fact, it is the largest religious compound
of the ancient world.
It is so big that it occupies
one-sixth of the entire Old City of Jerusalem.
And even though the Temple Mount looks like a platform,
back in the time of David,
it was just a mound upon which it is believed
Solomon built the first Temple.
And at the time, the platform was not large.
But with years, it had undergone numerous expansions,
with the largest of them being done by King Herod
in the 1st century BC
as he erected giant walls around the mound
and filled them with earth.
And as a result, a giant, flat platform was formed.
(Sergio) Rhoda and I have entered through the Moors Gate
and then made our way up by the Western Wall
and are on route to the Dome of the Rock.
Wow.
So cool!
(Rhoda) So how old is everything here?
The dating is actually scattered all over the place
because there had been so many reconstructions
done here throughout the ages.
For example, the arches that we are walking through
are part of the eight arch structures
that surrounded the Dome of the Rock.
They were built in the early Islamic period,
most of them dating to about the 8th century AD.
(Sergio) Wow!
(Rhoda) Babe, we shouldn't get close.
(Sergio) Wow!
♪ (music) ♪
The building in front of us is the Dome of the Rock.
This building was built at the end of the 7th century
during the early Islamic reign,
and it is one of the most recognized buildings
in the entire world.
But if you pay close attention to its structure,
you will notice that it does not look like a mosque.
And that is because, originally, it was not built as a mosque.
It was built as a shrine
to the foundation stone of the Temple...
the stone which is located at the center of this building.
In fact, even the Supreme Muslim Council,
led by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem,
published a guide to the Temple Mount in 1924
in which they write that:
"Its identity with the site of Solomon's Temple
is beyond dispute."
And they even continue to say that this is where
"David built an altar unto the Lord
and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings."
And this so-called foundation stone,
upon which it is believed
Abraham was sent to sacrifice his son Isaac,
and where David built an altar,
could also be the same stone upon which
the Ark of the Covenant once stood.
According to a famous archaeological architect
and researcher, Leen Ritmeyer,
who discovered the evidence for the location of Solomon's temple,
we may still see the depression in the bedrock
marking the place where the Ark of the Covenant
would have been settled in to prevent it from moving.
Wow, this is so cool. I can't believe we are here.
This is like...
- We are so close to the Rock. - (Rhoda) Mm-hmm.
I wish we could get in.
(Sergio) Yeah.
He said that only Muslim worshipers can go in.
We can't go into the building.
(Rhoda) Yeah. Too bad.
(Sergio) But still, we are so close. It's so cool.
And this is the place, right here, where they found the ancient wall.
- Right here. - (Rhoda) Wow!
(Sergio) Since excavations are prohibited at this site,
archaeologists have to primarily rely on data
recorded during renovations.
For example, in 1951,
when the floor was replaced at the Dome of the Rock,
archaeologists recorded remains of ancient walls
that are believed to date to the Second Temple period
and possibly be the remains of the base of the Temple walls.
(Rhoda) It's also worthy to mention that under this rock
there is a cave called Well of the Souls
where Muslim worshipers may enter to pray.
Not much is known about the origins of the cave
due to the strict "no excavation" rules.
However, in 2015,
when the carpets were replaced,
the floor of the cave was documented on camera
for the first time in human history.
The images sent shock waves around the world
as people started speculating
what these peculiar designs might be,
some even suggesting that this could be a clue
to the location of the lost Ark of the Covenant,
a theory that was born
due to the discovery made by Ermete Pierotti
in the 19th century.
He wrote that there is an additional cave
underneath the Well of the Souls,
and he said that he was able to reach this cave
through a secret tunnel.
(Sergio) Do you believe we're taking videos of all this?"
This is insane.
- And it's all in 4K. - (Rhoda) Mm-hmm.
(Sergio) We continue our journey to our next destination:
the Golden Gate.
This is the gate that you see from the Mount of Olives.
And it is hard to miss because it is the only gate
on the Eastern Wall.
But to get there, we had to walk under the eastern arches
and onto the area which is believed to have been the Women's Court
during the Second Temple time.
This would have been the place where Jesus saw the widow
putting the two mites into the treasury.
Yeah. This is where I've seen the guys go down.
Wow.
Just a few more feet walking through the eastern gardens,
we reach the Golden Gate.
Wow.
Oh, what is in there?
- (Rhoda) This is the Golden Gate? - (Sergio) Yeah.
(Rhoda) It has entrance.
The Golden Gate, also known as the Eastern Gate,
or in Hebrew, Sha'ar HaRachamim, the Gate of Mercy,
is the most interesting gate of all on the Temple Mount.
All three major monotheistic religions
place a huge significance on this gate.
Some Jews believe this is the gate
through which the Messiah will come
in accordance to Ezekiel's prophecy.
The Muslims believe this gate is connected
to the final judgment at the end of days.
While the Christians believe this is the gate through which
Jesus the Messiah had already entered, riding on the donkey,
fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies,
and will come back again during the Second Coming,
entering this gate in the last days.
(Sergio) Wow.
♪ (music) ♪
(Rhoda) So why is this gate sealed?
After the gate had been sealed by the Arabs in the 9th century,
then opened up by the Crusaders and sealed again by Saladin,
it had been shut since the medieval times.
And here's the reason why.
It is said that the Muslim rulers
did not want the Jewish prophecies to come about
and a false Messiah to come through the gate,
so they not only shut it,
but the Ottomans placed a cemetery in front of it
to also prevent Elijah, the forerunner to the Messiah,
from coming through the gate
because the cemetery would defile him
in accordance to the Jewish law.
(Sergio) I can't believe we're looking at the Eastern Gate
from the inside.
This is cool.
Wow.
Today, the gate is used for Muslim worshipers,
so visitor entry is forbidden.
However, from the outside,
we can see some incredible traces of history.
Even though most of the structure of the gate is believed to date
to the Byzantine or early Islamic period,
there is something spectacular lying on the ground level.
In the '70s, Leen Ritmeyer was given access to spend
a whole week inside the gate.
During this week, he documented the interior surfaces
and was able to see two monolithic gate posts
that seem to date to the First Temple period.
These gate posts lie perfectly in line
with the iron age masonry of the Eastern Wall.
And this First Temple masonry
can still be seen from the outside of the walls today
for anybody who passes by.
If all this indeed checks out,
then today's Eastern Gate is built
right on top of the original First Temple gate,
called the Shushan Gate,
the same gate that would have been reserved
only for the high priest and those who aided him
taking out the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement.
Babe, it's almost 2:30.
We have to hurry. We gotta go.
(Rhoda) Unfortunately, we only have a few minutes left
before the visitation hour comes to an end.
But on our way out,
we thought to make a stop by the Al-Aqsa Mosque,
and that is because this mosque has incredible history
hiding right under its floors.
(Sergio) In 1927, a major earthquake shook the region
taking down the rooftop of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
To prevent future collapse,
the Waqf decided to strengthen the foundations
by digging up the floors around the supporting columns.
And when they lifted the floors,
a British archaeologist, Robert Hamilton,
was on site to document the work
in case they found something underneath.
And to no surprise, so many things were found
that Hamilton wrote a 336-page report
in which he documents ancient structures,
marble floors, underground passages,
and so much more.
But one of the most incredible findings was a mosaic
that lies underneath the Al-Aqsa Mosque floor.
This mosaic did not get much attention
until a prominent Israeli archaeologist, Zachi Dvira,
noticed it is almost identical in pattern
to the mosaic found in the Church of Nativity.
And even though some say the early Muslims
used to mimic the Byzantine style,
this mosaic stretched to the outside of the original mosque.
If so, then there was an earlier building
under the Al-Aqsa...
possibly a Byzantine church.
And even more intriguing
is that when Dvira was looking through the archives,
he noticed that one of the staircases they dug out
has a divider,
a divider which is very similar to the one
a Jewish ritual bath would have...
a mikveh.
(Rhoda) But if that's not enough to peak's one's interest,
here's the cherry on top.
During the renovations,
the wooden support beams were removed.
These support beams were then taken to be tested
using carbon dating method and dendrochronological dating,
a very precise method for dating trees.
The results were nothing short of astonishing.
The beams are cypress trees and cedars of Lebanon.
And some of the beams dated to the Second Temple period,
the time of Jesus,
while a few of the beams dated to the First Temple period,
the time of David and Solomon.
That's right.
Cedar of Lebanon and cypress trees
dating to the First and the Second Temple periods.
(Sergio) What is your, uh...
What are your first thoughts right now?
I want to capture what you were thinking, what you were experiencing,
because we couldn't speak there much.
Overwhelming.
It was overwhelming.
It was just incredible feelings
and tension.
But, at the same time...
exciting for what's gonna happen here
and what might be underneath this place.
Yes! Yes!
(Sergio) The archaeological information we shared with you
in this video is just a small fraction
of the mountains of data that had been collected
over the past hundred years.
Things like Herodian style ceiling
that's found in the Double Gate,
a Greek graffiti on the ancient beams,
an ancient step that is still visible
peaking out of the modern construction,
and over 150 cavities and wells under the ground.
Secret passages under the mountains,
the Trumpeting Stone found in the corner of the Temple
with Hebrew inscription,
two warning inscriptions that surround the inner court of the Temple
with a Greek inscription warning pagan visitors
not to proceed under penalty of death.
50 Jewish ritual baths
excavated by the entrance to the Temple Mount,
or the hundreds of thousands of artifacts
excavated by the Temple Mount Sifting Project
in the soil that was taken just outside of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Artifacts that date all the way back
to the Second and the First Temple periods.
Yes. Yes!
The history that's under those tiles
as we were walking on that platform.
And then...
what's yet to come at the Eastern Gate.
And I get goosebumps just thinking about it right now.
It was surreal.
We've got to come back with a better camera and...
Film it properly.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
(Rhoda) Indeed, this place has so much history,
and there is so much to learn and still to look forward to,
but we were so glad to visit it today
and experience it together.
(Sergio) Hi, guys.
We hope you enjoyed that little segment.
It's not a fully edited episode,
but we just wanted to give you something
before we come back there again
with a better camera, more prepared,
and have time, for the second time,
knowing what to film and where.
- Bye. - Bye.
♪ (music) ♪
(Rhoda) Hi, everyone.
We really hope that you enjoyed this video.
And before we wrap up,
we wanted to give you a couple of resources
that were absolutely instrumental to the making of this video.
The first one is this Carta Guide Book.
If you want to learn more about the Temple Mount,
this is the book to have.
It's incredible.
And also, the Temple Mount Sifting Project.
These guys have been sifting the Temple Mount soil for 20 years,
and they have a lot of incredible information.
So make sure to check both links below
in the description of this video.
So thank you all for watching,
and God bless you!