The Temple and the palace being thus located, there is left, beyond
the west end of the palace, a plot of ground, 300 feet square, not
enclosed at the time we are speaking of, although at the present day
it forms the south-western corner of the Sanctuary and has the mosque
El Aksa covering it. But the great depression of the Tyropœon Valley
falls just there, and it would not be raised and enclosed until a late
day. Warren says, in the “Recovery of Jerusalem”: “Our researches show
that the portion of the wall to the west of the Double Gate is of a
different construction to, and more recent than that to the east. This
is a matter of very great importance, and, combined with other results,
appears to show the impossibility of the Temple having existed at the
south-west angle, as restored by Mr Fergusson and others. The only
solution of the question I can see, is by supposing the portion to the
east of the Double Gate to have formed the south wall of Solomon’s
palace, and that to the west to have been added by Herod when he
enlarged the courts of the Temple.”
Before this addition was made the south wall was but 600 feet in
length. The Triple Gate stood in the middle of it, and as we have seen,
it is exactly on the ridge of the hill. The sill is 38 feet below the
present level of the Sanctuary, and from the gate three avenues ascend
gently to the Sanctuary floor. May they not represent “the way by which
Solomon went up to the House of the Lord”?
_The Wall of Ophel_, as already described, has been discovered by
Warren, and abuts against the south-eastern angle of what we are now
prepared to regard as Solomon’s palace.
_The Tower of Antonia._--Josephus tells us that the tower which
Herod built and named in honour of Antony stood on a rock 50 cubits
high, at the north-west corner of the Temple. The rock was separated
from Bezetha by a cutting made on purpose, yet the tower was so near
to Bezetha that it adjoined the New City. At the same time it was
so near to the Temple that the south-eastern turret overlooked the
Temple courts, while passages from the tower led to the west and north
cloisters. This description is precise enough. As Conder says, there is
just such a rock fortress in the north-west part of the Haram. It is a
great scarp, with vertical faces on the south and north, standing up
40 feet above the interior court, and separated from the north-eastern
hill of Jerusalem by a ditch 50 yards broad, in which are now the Twin
Pools--the Bethesda of St. Jerome. This block of rock is “the top of
the hill” spoken of by Josephus, and occupies a length of 100 yards
along the course of the north wall of the Haram. No other such scarp
exists in or near the enclosure of the High Sanctuary. Can we then
hesitate to place Antonia here?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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