The Temple Mount

The most politically, emotionally and spiritually charged area in all of Israel is the temple mount area which sits atop the Western Hill in the middle of Jerusalem. For the Jewish people this is the place where both the first and second temples sat and where the presence of the Lord dwelt on earth. (The temple was destroyed in 70 AD by the Romans.) For Muslims, two of their holiest sites sit upon it; the Al Aqsa Mosque and the magnificent Dome of the Rock. The mosque is a really old place of worship that can accommodate up to 5000 people for prayer at one time and the Dome of the Rock is a monument that marks the spot where Mohammed and his horse flew off to heaven.

Today, under the negotiated rules of the land, Islamic authorities control the top platform of the temple mount (where Al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock sit) while Israel controls everything around it.

This area is a historical and archeological gold mine. The excavations that have been done around the temple mount have found extraordinary things; the roman road that was built all around the base with huge slabs of stone and the damage it suffered when the temple was destroyed from huge rocks flying off the top and literally crushing it. Evidence of the archways that held up elevated walkways and provided shade for the merchants who sat below to change money and sell animals to be sacrificed. The southern steps which lead up to the grand archway entrances to the temple area where Rabbis would sit and teach. Indeed Jesus most likely taught many people from these very steps. Even looking up at the rebuilt walls, the sheer size and scale and grandeur of the building is awe inspiring.

To dig inside the retaining wall which remains of the temple mount would undoubtedly cede even more extraordinary finds. Unfortunately, Muslims deny the existence of the temple at all, specifically on that piece of land and claim their holy sites are the only thing that ever sat there and will not allow any investigation into what might be found beneath them. This is both frustrating and offensive to archeologists and religious leaders alike.

At the southeastern tip of the temple mount area sits an underground Mosque. A few years ago Muslims got permission from the Israelis to build a fire escape coming up from the mosque to the temple mount platform. Instead of the small escape stairwell you would expect to find, they build a lavish wide staircase adorned with lights and gold and all sorts of splendor. During the process of building they literally just bulldozed downwards and took the piles of dirt and ancient remains they were finding and dumped them.

An archeology student in Israel noticed one night that full dump trucks were leaving the temple mount area in the northeast corner and heading out into the Kidron Valley (the valley that cuts east of the temple mount) and dumping piles of dirt. He saw this night after night and decided to tell his professor, famed Jewish archeologist Gabi Bar-kai. Bar-Kai received permission from the state of Israel and hired his own dump trucks to go pick up all this dirt from the floor of the valley and moved it up onto the Mount of Olives where a HUGE sifting project is now underway. Students and really anyone who wants to can go up and help his team sift through all this debris a tiny bit at a time looking for fragments of ancient remains. Next week we will head up their for an afternoon to try on our modern day Indiana Jones hats – I’m super excited.