The first Temple was built on Temple Mount by King Solomon in the 10th century BC. In 586 BC, Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, destroyed Jerusalem along with the Temple by setting it on fire. 70 years later, in 516 BC the second Temple was built in the same place, yet very modest by those returning from Babylon to Zion. This temple stood in its place and was used until the days of Herod.
Herod, king of Judea under Rome control, was known for his colossal building projects. Herod decided to build the largest sacred complex throughout the Roman Empire. There were several reasons for this:
The first, his vision, to turn Jerusalem, the capital of the kingdom into an important and central city in the Roman space with spacious markets, theaters, palaces and fortresses and all in the most impressive manner. There is no doubt that one of his purposes was to impress the visitors from all over the Roman Empire and leave them amazed.
A second reason, increasing the dimensions of the complex around the temple so that it would be possible to accommodate tens of thousands of pilgrims, while giving visitors a sense of grandeur.
The last reason I will mention: Herod had hundreds and more construction projects, and for that a lot of money was needed.
I will not go into the variety of tax revenues during Herod’s time, but a few words about the half shekel tax. The origin of this tax is related to the time of the construction of the tabernacle in the desert as it appears in the book of Exodus chapter 30, and a similar tax of one third of a shekel was also established in the days of Nehemiah. I will point out that the half shekel tax was established in the Hasmonean period, and then it was taken as an annual tax and not a one-time tax as it was in the desert. Since the Hasmonean period, it has been raised regularly by the Jews of the diaspora and the Jews in land of Israel. Every male in Israel from the age of 13, and not from the age of 20 as appears in the Torah, was charged with this tax.
According to the Mishna, the tax is intended to cover all the expenses of the Temple and the needs of the city in general. This donation is allowed to be used for and I quote: “the aqueduct, the city wall and its towers and all the needs of the city”. This tax had a great impact on the economy of the city and its population, on the development of trade and crafts in the city and on the employment situation in Jerusalem and its surroundings. Herod wanted many Jewish visitors from the diaspora, no different than today.
There is no doubt that the number of pilgrims to the Temple was large and probably increased significantly after Herod’s transformation of the Temple Mount. Many tens of thousands, both from Israel and from the diaspora. The visitors who came from the diaspora brought large sums of money into the city – either in the form of donations, or in the expenses they incurred in Jerusalem, such as the purchase of food and animals for sacrifice in the Temple.
Estimates I have seen indicate that the half shekel tax contributed 10% and even more of the total income of the Kingdom of Judea from taxes. In general, it is worth noting that the temple, together with the services of the priesthood, received various incomes and gifts that also added up to large amounts and in general, the temple as a center of pilgrimage and as a center receiving taxes and donations, was one of the most significant economic factors in the life of the country.
To accomplish his goal, Herod built four massive retaining walls around the Temple Mount, one of which is the Western Wall. In the space between the walls and the mountain, fillings and vaults were built, and above them a paved square with an area of 144,000 square meters was built, the area of - 17 football fields or 340 basketball courts.
Before I talk about the heart of the matter, some data on the dimensions of the construction: the length of the Western Wall is 488 meters, the length of the Eastern Wall 460 meters, the Northern Wall 315 meters and the Southern Wall – 280 meters.
Herod increased the area of the Temple Mount complex even beyond the natural boundaries of Mount Moriah while crossing the ravines that border the hill.
Two significant cases: the first – the northeastern corner of the Temple Mount complex was built on the bed of Beit Zita brook so that the Temple Mount’s area extended beyond the northern crossing of this stream. Second case – the southwestern corner of the Temple Mount complex was built about 35 meters west of the central ravine, at the bottom of the eastern slope of the southwestern hill of the city. On the other hand, in the northwestern corner of the Temple Mount, the builders carved the rock of the hill that rose above Mount Moriah to match the level of the Temple Mount Square. On the remaining height, Herod built the Antonia Fort.
The uniqueness of the Temple Mount complex is in the construction of a huge artificial structure in a mountainous area that is not convenient for construction, and for this, massive retaining walls were required.
The walls of the Temple Mount were originally used as retaining walls for the huge complex, with their entire length being founded on the natural rock according to the topography at each point. That is, in its southern corners and in the area of its northeastern corner, where the rock level is particularly low, the foundations of the retaining walls were laid at a great depth below the surface, while in the northwest and in the center of its southern wall, the foundations were placed at the highest level. In some places, the foundations of the walls of the Temple Mount were built at a great depth below the level of the streets in their time, while the walls themselves sometimes rose up to a height of about 30 meters above this level.
The maximum height of the original wall in the south reached 50 to 55 meters above the surface of the rock, equivalent to an 18-story building.
The walls of the Temple Mount were built with large ashlar stones, which are about 1-1.1 meters high and their length is not fixed. The weight of most of the stones reaches two to five tons as the weight of a medium elephant and some of them are much larger than the stones of the pyramids in Egypt. The stones that make up the southern corners of the Temple Mount structure are particularly large, the length of some of the stones reaches 10 meters and more and they are about two and a half meters wide. Their weight reaches up to 50 tons each and even more.
In the corners of the building, they placed the stones in a special way to tie the walls together; This is an ancient construction method with ashlar stones, intended to strengthen walls especially those built in a dry construction without cement, as Herod’s engineers did in the Temple Mount project. The method is based on rectangular stones, each of which has a long side and a short side. The stones are integrated into the wall at 90 degrees alternately, so that each time the long side or the short side is visible, or two long side stones and a wide side at a uniform rate.
At the height of Huldah gates threshold in the southern wall, there is a row of huge stones named Nidbach Raba, which is the 28th row from the mountain surface. The height of its stones is close to twice the average and it runs along the southern and western wall of the Temple Mount complex. This tier was probably used as a kind of stabilizing and binding tightening belt in the complex structure of the walls of the Temple Mount which required additional reinforcement mainly on the sides where the construction rose to a particularly high height. I’ll just mention that these are the places where filling was required, high above the mountain rock. It is designed to fasten and stabilize the stones below it and provide a solid foundation for the stones above. The weight of one of its stones integrated in the southeast corner is one hundred tons.
Also, a stone of unusual size was discovered in the western wall. It can be seen in the Western Wall Tunnel. This specific stone is the largest ever seen in Israel and it’s named the Western Stone. Its length reaches 13.6 meters, its height is 3.3 meters and its thickness is approx. 4.6 meters. It is one of the largest building stones in the ancient world although larger ones have been found and its weight is estimated at hundreds of tons. It is stated in several places that it weighs over 500 tons.
How the stone was brought here and how it was placed, those are questions I will not be discussed here, but there is a lot of respect for this engineering achievement to Herod and his engineers. Nidbach Raba is the highest and longest in the Western Wall and its stones are the largest building stones found in the Land of Israel.
The large rectangular holes in the stones, were carved to attach a wall to the western wall with the help of stone pegs, examples of which are seen here embedded in the plaster. A thick layer of water-resistant plaster was also attached to this wall.
From where we are standing, we can notice that each tier of the wall recedes inward about 2-3 centimeters compared to the tier below it. This is intended to correct the optical illusion when looking at the wall from below as if it is about to collapse. A direct result is that the walls on the outer side to their full height recede by several tens of centimeters.
The Western Wall, which is the western retaining wall of the Temple Mount and closest to the Holy of Holies, exists to this day in its entirety, and extends from the southwestern corner of the Temple Mount to the northwestern corner.
The most visible part of the Western Wall is the prayer plaza, where the Western Wall rises to a height of 15 meters. The lower 8 meters consists of 7 rows and they are original from the Herodian period. The last seven meters were added at different times after they were destroyed in the Great Revolt and in later periods.
Under the floor of the Western Wall Plaza are buried another 17 rows, all of them Herodian originals from the end of the Second Temple period. It is possible to differentiate between the original wall stones and the others, according to their size and how they were carved. The Herodian stones are larger and have a carved frame and rim.
And to conclude as usual I have a question for you. In the Western Wall Tunnel, after we visit the huge Western Stone and continue north, we will reach a long and impressive aqueduct, at what period was it built? The answer will appear at the end of the video.
