(1) _A Hebrew Temple._--In the course of the excavation at Megiddo a temple was found concerning the sacred nature of which there can be no such doubts as in the case of the building just mentioned[209]; (Fig. 222). This temple was in the Israelitish stratum, and so is of especial interest to the students of the Bible. It was situated in the highest part of the city. The whole space was not excavated, but the portion uncovered was 131 feet long and 115 wide. It was of the same period as the palace in which the seal of Shema the servant of Jeroboam was found, and contained more drafted stones than the walls of that palace. In one of the rooms of the temple stood two stones that were certainly “pillars” such as are denounced in Deuteronomy. One of these was 7 feet 8 inches high; the other, 7 feet high. The room in which these pillars stood was 30 feet long and 10 feet 7 inches wide. In building the wall of this temple a stone was used that had once formed the voluted capital of a column; (Fig. 224). Probably this stone was taken from an earlier Philistine building. In the grounds of the temple, which were once regarded as holy, several jars containing the skeletons of children were unearthed. These had apparently been offered in sacrifice and buried like those found in the high place of Gezer. While the walls of this temple were built of larger and more carefully cut stones than most of the other walls in the city, no effort seems to have been made to give the temple a definite architectural plan. Large towers were found near it, but, as the temple was at the east end of the city, these formed part of fortifications. The fortifications and other buildings crowded upon the temple, so that, had an effort been made to make it architecturally imposing, the effect would have been lost. (2) _A Palace Chapel._--The people of Megiddo seem to have been particularly fond of the type of worship represented by this temple, for in a room to the east of the palace of the Hebrew governor was a room containing three “pillars,” in which the remains of a number of terra-cotta goddesses were found.[210] This was apparently the private chapel of the palace. This room was almost 40 feet long and 32 feet 10 inches wide; (Fig. 223). Its beginnings antedate the Israelitish period, since they come from the stratum before the conquest.