In old Jerusalem
I think that this region actually enjoys conflict. I think they thrive on it. One thing is for sure, a lot of blood has been shed over this ground for the past 3000 years or so.... Today the temple is basically controlled by the Muslims. The view above is from the outside area. The dome on the temple is the Dome of the Rock. The tower is the al-Aqsa mosque. The Rock is very important to the Jews. It is written that it is from this rock, the world expanded to it’s current form. It is also written that this where God gathered the dust to create Adam. Two Jewish Temples have been built on this site. The first temple was destroyed by the Babylonians and the Second was destroyed by the Romans. Is it more than coincidence that both temples where destroyed on the 10th of August (the 9th of Av in Jewish reckoning)?
After the 6 day war, in 1967, the Israelis ended up with the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza strip ,the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. This basically put the mount in their hands, but because of the religious significance to Christians, Jews, Moslems and other sects, there was an agreement to allow Muslim steward ship of the temple to continue. One community, the Mugabis, were forcibly relocated away from the wailing wall. This is shown in the picture below.
The significance of this wall is that is the only part of the 2nd temple that is still exposed and it is close to Holiest of Holies, the Rock. After the war, the Jews cleared the area of the homes and built the plaza seen above. The wall is a very small area, but it maintains deep significance to the Jews. On the upper right side of this photograph, you can see some wooden construction. This is a temporary entrance. This is the only entrance that a non-Muslim can use to enter the temple. Access to the temple is very restricted.
Entrance to the wall is free, but it is segregated by sex. Women must not have exposed shoulders. The woman in the foreground of this photo was given a “schmata” to cover her shoulders. Men must wear a hat.
The tunnels are the results of the excavation activities of the IAA (Israeli Antiquity Authority) . While the Muslims have the temple itself, the jews have the land under the temple. They have begun digging and have constructed a tunnel which runs along the wall of the temple.
The image above shows some features of second temple construction and destruction. The stone on the upper half of the picture is approximately 80 ft long, 5 ft high, and 5 feet in depth. It weighs approximately 66,000 tons. They clearly had some sense of the advantages of pulleys. If you look to the lower left of the photograph you see that some of the stones have a relief cut along the edge of the stone ( a rectangle within a rectangle). This is a key indicator of a stone from 2nd temple times. Every stone in the temple had it edges shaved. The square holes are a very interesting feature. These were carved by the Romans. This section of the wall was just too hard to destroy so they carved these rectangular holes and put in rock pegs. The sandstone walls did not hold water and the Romans wanted to use this area as a pool. The poured cement down the face of the wall and used the rock pegs in the same fashion that we would use steel rebar today. The cement is shown in the lower half of the image
The tunnel system gets pretty tight in places. The wall to the left of this image is a concrete retaining wall. The wall to the right is the wall of the temple. Note the wall near the fellow’s hand. This is not 2nd temple stone. It was added when the Muslims or Romans were building on the current site. Directly that stone below you see the original wall with the relief cutting on the edge of the stone.
The image below is from an ancient cistern that was discovered along the wall. The cistern was open during the time of the second temple. The Romans covered over and built a plaza above the cistern. The cistern still filled with water when it rained and the people from the city would
enter from a small staircase to get their water and bring back to their homes.
This a view of the city of Jerusalem as viewed from the steps leading to the temple of the mount. The excavations ( in the area in front of the buses) are of the City of David
which was around during the 2nd temple era. On the other side of the busses is a steep ravine that falls into an area that used to bring water into city. That was diverted as part of the siege of the city by the Babylonians. The houses on the hills in the valley show how dense the population is. This is basically the way it was in 2nd temple days but the houses where lower than 4 stories.
The tunnel in the temple on the mount
Friday, August 22, 2008
