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  

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