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If one reads Josephus' historical account of the
friction between Herod and the Jews, it is clear
that Herod was not free to do what he liked, but
was under constraints of Biblical injunctions and
Jewish tradition. For example, the fact that the
lintel of the Porch was made of five wooden beams,
a very un-Roman like construction, indicates that
one cannot treat the Temple Mount as merely another
Roman or Greek sanctuary.
THE NORTH-EAST CORNER
Let us now look at some of the archaeological
details, starting with the northern wall, which
Jacobson wants to move further to the north in
order to accommodate his symmetrical design. Is
this possible? Certainly not, as the Herodian
north-east corner and part of the northern wall are
still in existence at the north-east corner of the
present-day Temple Mount.
Actually all four corners of the Herodian Temple
Mount have survived the Roman destruction for a
great deal: they still stand up to a considerable
height. This was due to the very large stones which
were used in the corner constructions, some of
which are 12 m. (40 feet) long! Even the Romans
were unable to shift these giant stones and
therefore we can still see them today. The
north-east corner of the Temple Mount, which was
mistakenly called in Warren's days "The Tower of
Antonia", or "The Castle of Antonia" is no
exception.
This tower and the stretch of wall between it
and the Golden Gate are part of the Temple Mount
which is least understood, not only by Jacobson.
Very little has been written about it, and several
scholars followed Conder who believed that this
part was post-Herodian. Hollis and Simons
identified this wall as part of the Third Wall
built by Agrippa, and the tower at the north-east
corner of the Temple Mount as one of the towers of
this city wall.
Large parts of the eastern and northern faces of
this tower are however still preserved. The typical
Herodian margins and bosses are clearly visible on
most of these large stones, which are, on average,
1.10 m. (3 feet 10 inches) high, just like all the
Herodian stones in the other retaining walls of the
Temple Mount. The eastern face of this tower can
still be seen today. I wrote about this northern
part of the Eastern Wall and illustrated the
remains in a previous article . The eastern face of
this tower has a typical header and stretcher
construction at both its corners. The Herodian
north-east corner today stands 11 stone courses
above ground and below ground another 19 Herodian
courses still exist, a combined height of 30 (!)
Herodian courses. Its northern corner construction
indicates that part of the northern wall also still
exists.
This northern face of the Herodian north-east
tower, which is part of the Herodian northern wall
of the Temple Mount, is little known and hardly
visible because of some trees which have recently
been planted in front of it. The Turkish city wall
also abuts this angle and obscures it partly from
view.Therefore it has been proposed in the past
that this angle is not a corner at all . Indeed,
Wilson writes of "the sudden termination of the
large stones" of the tower.
However, in our opinion, the original northern
face has been preserved and is still visible,
although its stones are in a bad state of
preservation. This can clearly be seen on the
photograph [see enclosed slide 53] which I
took many years ago before the trees were planted.
As many parts of the obviously damaged faces of the
Herodian ashlars have been repaired with much
smaller stones, the overall effect is such a
patchwork that an untrained eye can hardly
recognise it as the northern facade of the Temple
Mount.
A closer look, however, reveals the Herodian
masonry clearly. To make it easier to understand I
drew the Herodian stones, while eliminating the
later additions, and if you look at the drawing
[also enclosed] the following becomes
clear: two large stretcher stones are still
visible, one at the bottom of the large masonry,
and the other at the second course from the top. In
between these two long stones, there are two others
in the alternating courses (on the left in drawing,
near the city wall), which of necessity must also
be long stretcher stones. As the joints between the
courses of the northern face of this tower also
line up with those of the eastern face, it is clear
that these large stones are part of a typical
Herodian 'header and stretcher' corner
construction. This proves that we are looking at
the preserved part of the northern wall of the
Herodian Temple Mount. My reconstruction drawing of
this north-eastern part of the Temple Mount further
clarifies this. This corner also forms a 90 degree
angle and is in one line with the southern front of
the Antonia Fortress. We have here a very clearly
defined straight course for the northern wall of
the Temple Mount. How is it then possible to
suggest that the northern wall was somewhere
else?
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