Tent Work in Palestine: A Record of Discovery and AdventureConder, C. R. (Claude Reignier)
History
Tent Work in Palestine: A Record of Discovery and Adventure
Conder, C. R. (Claude Reignier)
Palestine -- Description and travel
The result obtained from these data is extremely striking. The weak
point of all restorations of the Temple which I have as yet seen is
this, that no attention has been paid to the character of the ground, or
to the elevation of the building. If we apply the well-known measures of
the Temple courts, given in the Middoth, to the ground, on the
assumption that the Sakhrah is the Holy of Holies, the result is
satisfactory, and in fact exact, as regards level. The various levels of
the courts we know from the writings of Maimonides; they agree to a foot
with those of the rock round the Sakhrah, as a glance at the plan will
show: but only in this position is it possible to make them agree; in
any other we are obliged to suppose gigantic masonry foundations which
are not mentioned by the writer who says the Temple was built on “the
higher part of the hill” (B. J. v. 5, 2), and of which not a trace has
been found inside the Haram.
The plan shows this agreement better than words can explain it; there is
only space here to point out some of the special tests which can be
applied.
Placing the floor of the Holy House on the level of the top of the
Sakhrah, 2440 feet above the Mediterranean, the Altar-Court should be at
a level six cubits lower (2432). The rock is actually known to have the
level 2432, immediately west of the supposed position of the Altar on
the present plan.
The Court of the Women should have a level 2418·6. The rock in this part
is known to be lower than 2419 over a considerable area. The gates north
and south of the Temple led down to a level about 2425. The rock in
their immediate neighbourhood has been fixed at the levels 2425 and
2426. The outer part, near the Soreg or Wall of Partition, had, on the
east, a level 2410. The rock is here known at the level 2409 and 2406.
Nor are these the only indications of exactness in detail. North of the
Court of the Priests was the great Gate-house Moked, “the house of the
fireplace,” from which a gallery, apparently that noticed by Josephus
(Ant. xv. 11, 7), ran under the Sanctuary to the subterranean gate Tadi
or Teri, and from this gate the Bath-house was reached. The great
subterranean passage called No. 1 on the Ordnance Survey, starts from
the north wall of the Court of the Priests, as placed on the present
plan, and it leads just as far as the boundary of the 500 cubits. On
this same line is the north end of the great excavation No. 3, which
Captain Warren has proposed as representing the Bath-house; somewhere on
the line of No. 1 gallery, then, I would place Tadi, just outside the
Sanctuary, close to the entrance of the Bath-house vault. I may remark
that a visit in 1874 showed me that these great galleries are closed on
the north by rude modern walls, and the vaults may very possibly run on
to meet near the north wall of the Platform.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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