A couple of weeks ago, we spent some time in Israel with our family, visiting places which are dear to us. Following up on a lead, I used some of that time to investigate a particular section in the eastern wall of the Temple Mount. In the picture below, you can see me photographing two massive stones, which are located 77m (253 feet) north of the south east corner. These stones are similar in size and shape to the ones that can be seen on either side of the Golden Gate. I have dated this masonry to the time of King Hezekiah’s expansion of the Temple Mount in about 700 B.C. (See The Quest, p. 174-178; 191-193). King Hezekiah had built massive retaining walls round the courtyards of King Solomon’s Temple to create a square platform of 500 cubits.
We were being watched from above by a policeman, who was not too happy as he thought that we might be desecrating some tombs.
On the first stone, in the picture below left, you can clearly see the margin and the rough bulging boss which is typical of Iron Age Temple Mount masonry. The two stones are resting on other similar stones, as far as one can see. The stones are located 4 m (13 feet) north of the so-called Mohammed’s Pillar, where I had placed the south east corner of King Hezekiah’s square Temple platform (see picture below right). It is exciting to be so close to the original south east corner and yet so far away. If one only could excavate a few meters down at that point, I’m sure that the south east corner of the square Temple Mount will be found!
The diagram below shows all the accumulated archaeological evidence for the outer walls of the 500 cubit square Temple Mount:
The discovery of this new section of ancient stones in the eastern wall of the Temple Mount confirms the location of the pre-Herodian Temple Mount and is an exciting addition to the many new discoveries being made these days to show that the Temple Mount, as we know it today, is indeed the place where the Temples of Solomon, Hezekiah, Zerubbabel and Herod once stood.
Dear Len. According to my calculations the southern edge of the southern stone of the two stones is located at the south-east exterior corner (i.e.including the width of the wall 4.5 m) of the Holy Temple Mount of 500 by 500 cubits. I published it in Hebrew in “Maalin Bakodesh” 10 and 11, in 2005 and 2006. You can see the plan of Temple mount in english with the corner stone at http://truthofland.co.il/english/images/templemountcom.gif. At http://www.truthofland.co.il/templemount/clermont_eng.gif you can see the gate found by Clermont. The drain found by him 9.65 m north of the center of the pillar of Muhamad corresponds exactly to the inner south-east corner of the original Temple Mount. At http://www.truthofland.co.il/templemount/drain_eng.gif you can see the drain closed by a small stone. Sincerely, Daniel
Very interesting, but the first link doesn’t work.
A note of interest; The southeast corner [Solomons Stables] is currently being excavated by the Muslims to build an underground mosque. The methodoloy or madness by Islam is to destroy all historical evidence of a country they inhabit for fear of exposure of their false ideology. The actual foundational base is theorised to be 52 1/2 feet below the current platform. This could be one of the reasons why the Muslims keep digging to find and destroy evidence. I heard recently they are bringing in generators of the type used for heavy equipment atop the mount. No empire in recorded history has ever been so destructive as Islam for the last 1539 yrs.
The Marwani Mosque was completed some years ago with minimal damage to Solomon’s Stables. No illegal digging is going on at present as far as I know.
If the generators were a threat to the security of the State of Israel, they would have disappeared long ago.