There is no doubt that the second temple was built on the lines of the first, which were probably still traceable in the débris. It was also constructed of stone which still lay about the top of the hill--stone that had been used in the work of Solomon. It was not because it was smaller than the first temple that old men who had seen that wept as they looked on the new one (Ezra 3:12), but because it was less ornate. It was probably without ornament. Josephus (_Contra Apion_, i, 22) says that the temple court was enclosed by a wall a plethra in length and 100 Greek cubits in breadth, _i. e._, 485½ by 145½ feet. It was not, then, very large. It is uncertain whether there was at this time more than one court; 1 Macc. 4:48 speaks of “courts,” but Josephus tells[253] how the people pelted Alexander Jannæus with citrons while he was officiating at the altar during the Feast of Tabernacles, so that it is probable that the courts were not separated by a wall, but by a difference of elevation. The inner court was probably higher than the other, as it is around the Mosque of Omar today. Within this court was an altar of unhewn stones. The temple itself consisted as before of the holy place and the holy of holies. Before the holy place was a porch, and around the building there were many small chambers as formerly. The holy of holies was separated from the holy place by a veil (1 Macc. 1:22), but now it contained no ark of the covenant, as that had been lost in 586 B. C. The holy of holies in the second temple was empty except for the “stone of foundation” on which the high priest placed his censer on the day of atonement.[254] In the holy place the table of show-bread stood in front of the veil. Instead of the ten golden lamp-stands of Solomon’s temple there now stood there the lamp with seven branches (see Zech. 4). A golden altar of incense replaced it (1 Macc. 1:21) in the time of the Maccabees, though it may not have been placed there before the time of Ezra. Such was the temple as reconstructed after the Exile. In one important respect its perspective was changed. The royal palace and the administrative buildings, which before the Exile had shared the crest of the northern spur of Zion with the temple, were not rebuilt. The temple stood there alone. Little by little the part of the hill to the south of the temple was cleared of the débris and the ground became a temple court. This was significant of the religious condition of the post-exilic time. Kings had vanished; the worship of Jehovah held the supreme place in the thought of the people.