New drawings of the Development of the Temple Mount.

Our Image Library contains reconstruction drawings of Jerusalem in the various periods. I made different versions of them for the ESV Study Bible and for the Chronological Life Application Study Bible.

However, when compiling our latest book, a Guide Book to the Temple Mount (forthcoming), a new set of drawings was necessary, the focus this time being on how Mount Moriah developed over time.  The series begins with a drawing of the topography of Mount Moriah:

We can no longer see what Mount Moriah originally looked like. All that is visible today is its summit inside the Dome of the Rock. However, Charles Warren, the British engineer who explored Jerusalem in the 1860s produced a rock contour map, which has not been surpassed in accuracy to this day. Using this rock map and taking the general configuration of the Jerusalem mountains, with the layered rock sloping from north to south, into consideration, our illustration shows what Mount Moriah would have looked like before the subsequent temples were built. It was near the top of this mountain that Abraham built an altar to sacrifice his son Isaac. © Ritmeyer Archaeological Design

In the succeeding days, we will feature the following drawings of Mount Moriah in the historical periods from the Jebusites till the Early Muslim period.

25 thoughts on “New drawings of the Development of the Temple Mount.”

  1. Sorry. I sent you my last post while you were writing a response to another of mine.
    You say that the “even hashesiyah” was high in Solomon’s temple and was 3 fingers high in Herod’s time. Today it is again high. How do you account for this? Herod did not fill it in. He was excluded from the 500×500 area as reported by Josephus. And, why is it high again?

  2. The commentaries on “beer hakar” translate it as source (mokor) not akra. I have to integrate what you say with the halacha.

    I read what you say about the “even hashesiya” in “The Quest”. I will study it over the weekend.
    I have to see those mishnayot and the commentaries.

  3. I read what you wrote about the foundation covering the “even hashesiya” leaving only 3 fingers. How do you know it was Herod that made it. We know that Josephus (you quote it) claims that he could not enter the 500×500 area. Perhaps it was made that way from the beginning. Then we do not have posit a ramp that you mention for the High Priest. I think that it could be part of the specification that the prophets required. The reason that we see now a high stone is because it was eroded. There is a tradition that that they eroded everything down to the foundations. “oru oru hayesod boh”. Do you think Abraham came with a ladder when he wamted to sacrifice Isaac?

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