From: Marilyn Agee
Re: Oliver Thomas (23 May 2009)
"To: Marilyn Agee (22 May 2009) Herod's Platform, The Antonia, and ha-Shetiyah"

Hi:

 

It is well-known that Herod about doubled the size of the Temple Mount and built Fort Antonia. At that time, the Temple seems to have been in the southern half of the Temple Mount, and Fort Antonia in the northern half of the mount.

 

Below is some interesting material on the location of the Temple.

"On The Location of the
First and Second Temples in Jerusalem"
by Lambert Dolphin and Michael Kollen

http://www.templemount.org/theories.html

"Living water," that is, fresh, flowing water, not water from a cistern, was required for the ritual bath (mikveh) used by the temple priests, and for the washings of the temple in connection with the sacrifices.

A survey of the level of the aqueduct reveals that if the Temple had been located at the same elevation as the present Dome of the Rock shrine, the aqueduct would be over 20 meters too low to serve either the Azarah or the Water Gate. From this survey, it appears that the Temple must have been 20 meters lower, and, thus, to the south.
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When figuring fill dirt, try 20 meters lower than today south of the Dome of the Rock. Above it, the bedrock is at or very near the surface. The bedrock is exposed at the Dome of the Spirits in the north as well as under the Dome of the Rock.

An aquaduct supplied spring water to the Temple from the Ein Eitam spring near the Pools of Solomon in the hills of Bethlehem. It was only 23 cubits higher than the level of the Temple court and was kept running by a built-in syphon with a 100 ft. drop built in the hills.

From where the main aqueduct entered the Temple mount at Wilson's arch, it went southeast to where the Kas Fountain is today. That is important for that is within the area where the Temple was built. The southern location is the only one that will allow the Temple to be over the aquaduct.

Tuvia Segiv thinks the Temple was on the south side between the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque. I agree. The aqueduct going directly to the Kas Fountain fits that location also. 

 

Look at the diagram below. Follow the aquaduct line southeast. Then look at the Great Sea Cistern. The aquaduct originally ran into the Great Sea Cistern. You can easily see where the aquaduct fit into it.

 

A diagram of water level is at

http://www.geocities.com/theseder2/waterLevelIndex.html

"A Dome of the Rock location for the Temple would have made it impossible to supply running water to the Temple.

 

"...if the Double and Triple Gates (+725 meters above sea level) are the Hulda Gate, and the Barclay Gate (+725 m) is the Ciponus Gate, then the level of these three gates is at the original level of the Temple Mount and we have to lower the level of the Temple Mount by at least 11 to 16 meters from the currently existing court level (+737 meters above sea level)."

Information Source (originally) from
http://www.solomonstemple.com

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If you need a topography map, go to http://www.geocities.com/theseder2/waterChannels.html

A map of the cisterns is at

http://geocities.com/theseder2/warrenmap.htm

 

The Temple had to be supplied with spring water brought in by the aquaduct. It came on a height of 737.5 meters above sea level. The height of the Dome of the Rock platform is 743.7 meters above sea level. That's about 20 feet higher than the aqueduct! A meter is approx. 39.37 inches. The water would only flow downhill. The Temple floor had to be at a lower elevation than the incoming water. Thus it had to be south of the Dome of the Rock platform. That's irrefutable evidence to me. The height of the Temple platform is thought to have been 727.4 meters. The double Hulda-gate entry on the south is 724.9.

 

Therefore, I think the Temple was in the southern half of the Temple Mount, and Fort Antonia was in the northern half. Josephus was a Pharisee priest. He had seen the Temple Mount first hand. He knew what he was talking about.

 

The northern and western cloisters of the Temple joined Fort Antonia with steps, because of the increase in elevation of the northern half. Those steps were  where Paul preached his case to the people after he was arrested at the Temple.

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The Temple Mount in Jerusalem - Fort Antonia

Solomon's Temple on the South End of Mount Moriah - Location of First and Second Temples

http://www.geocities.com/theseder2/fortAntonia.htm

The best way to understand where the fort was located is to read through Josephus' account.
 

1. How big was the temple compound and Fort Antonia altogether? Josephus says it was "six furlongs, including fort Antonia"!  With this lower placement of the Temple compound and also the placement of Fort Antonia on the Dome of the Rock platform the measurement all the way round is 6 furlongs just as Josephus said it was. According to Josephus the Temple compound alone was 4 furlong around, that is aproxamatly 600 X 600,  but when Fort Antonia was included in the Temple complex, together it was 6 furlong around.  So Fort Antonia was also a square of 600 X 600.

 

Fort Antonia was not thought of as being seperate from the Temple compound. It was part of it.  Between the temple compound, which was square, and Fort Antonia, which was also square, the two formed a rectangel that was two furlong/stadium long on east and west and one furlong/stadium on north and south.

In a plea of Josephus to the Jews he quoted an old Jewish prophecy that said "When the Temple becomes four-square once again then will the temple and city be destroyed."  By the destruction of Fort Antonia the temple HAD once again become four-square and he begged them to make peace with the Roman's before it was to (too) late. Of course they refused.

BOOK 6 :7. In the mean time, the rest of the Roman army had, in seven days' time, overthrown [some] foundations of the tower of Antonia, and had made a ready and broad way to the temple.

Then the Jews (the tyrants among them) set on fire the cloisters that conected Fort Antonia to the Temple compound on the northwest and north to sever the Temple from the Fort.  With this act the Temple was once again four-square.

2. How was the fort attached to the Temple compound?
Flavius Josephus in 93 C.E.
BOOK 25, CH. 5 Josephus Flavius regarding Tower of Antonia;
8. Now as to the tower of Antonia, it was situated at the corner of two cloisters of the court of the temple; of that on the west, and that on the north; it was erected upon a rock of fifty cubits in height (75 feet high), and was on a great precipice; (steep hill) it was the work of king Herod, wherein he demonstrated his natural magnanimity.

........but on the corner where it joined to the two cloisters of the temple, it had passages down to them both, through which the guard (for there always lay in this tower a Roman legion) went several ways among the cloisters, with their arms, on the Jewish festivals, in order to watch the people, that they might not there attempt to make any innovations
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How many men were in a Roman legion?

"Organization of the Roman Imperial Legion"

http://www.unrv.com/military/legion.php

"A full strength legion was officially made up of 6,000 men"

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Fort Antonia had to be as large as half the Temple Mount to house 6000 men.

Agape,
Marilyn Agee
mjagee@verizon.net
http://prophecycorner.theforeverfamily.com

Oliver Thomas (23 May 2009)
"To: Marilyn Agee (22 May 2009) Herod's Platform, The Antonia, and ha-Shetiyah"

Dear Marilyn, Interesting information and the Antonia could have been quite large, but I don't think you have it in the right location. There was a rock outcropping on the other side of a small valley that separated it from Mount Moriah, this is where the Antonia was built.
    Herod's Temple Platform was the largest platform of the ancient world covering 145 acres; this amounts to 6,316,200 square feet. If, as you suggest, this platform was 40 feet lower in 70 AD than it is today, then that would mean somebody added 40 foot of material on top of Herod's platform after 70 AD. Just how much fill material would that be, more than one might imagine:
 
40 feet times 6,316,200 feet = 252,648,000 cubic feet of material.
 
If we compare this volume to that of the Great Pyramid 90,000,000 cubic feet, we see that this fill material would have amounted to almost 3 times the volume of the Great Pyramid; this would have been impossible.
    Technically speaking the Antonia wasn’t actually built on Mount Moriah; the small valley of Bezetha ran between the two areas. This was to satisfy the Jews who considered the vicinity of the Holy Mount sacred ground. A Roman fortress would have defiled the Temple Mount. Furthermore the Antonia had to be built outside the walls of the Temple environs so as to have no connection to the Temple Mount.
    The center of the Temple Mount is the rock that sits at the very top of the mountain. Here are some of the rabbinic sayings about this rock. In the Talmud (Yoma) it is written that: "After the Ark was taken away, a stone remained there from the time of the early Prophets, and it was called Shtiah. The meaning of the word Shtiah is that all the world was created from it and built on it as the foundation.” It is the point where God first created light and began the creation of the universe (Ps. 50:1-2). The ha-Shetiyah is the Foundation Stone that holds back the waters of chaos. It is the center of the universe (Tanhuma, Kedoshim 10). Temple Mount is the location of the "foundation stone" with which God created the world, and that Adam, Noah and Abraham brought sacrifices to God there.  ...YBIC .. Oliver Thomas