Teaching Team
Temple Mount Quarry Discovered!
The archaeology of Jerusalem continues to render exciting new discoveries. A few weeks ago we heard about the new discovery of a water tunnel used as an escape route by the citizens of Jerusalem during the Roman siege in 70 CE. If you missed it, read about it here: New Discovery.
Today we learn that the quarry from which the Temple Mount’s retaining wall stones were hewn has been discovered.
Visitors to the Temple Mount are always impressed with the size of the giant limestone blocks that formed the retaining wall of the second Temple. The most famous of those stones are the ones visible at the Kotel, the western wall, which is revered as a place of prayer. The larger stones are actually below the current ground level of the kotel. Those courses can be seen on the southwest corner of the Temple Mount and by visiting the rabbi’s tunnel Temple museum adjacent to the Kotel. The sheer size of these great blocks of limestone are so stunning that, in its day, the Holy Temple was regarded one of the seven wonders of the world.
Before the Master was born, King Herod set to work on expanding and remodeling the Temple. He employed an army of builders, and somehow, they chiseled out and transported those massive ashlars to Mount Moriah. Now an emergency archaeological dig has revealed the quarry site from which the stones were taken. Read about the quarry discover here.
See pictures of the quarry here.
In the days of the Master, this quarry would have been covered with hundreds of men wielding picks and clambering across scaffolding. It is easy to picture Yeshua, as a young boy, with his father Joseph the carpenter, visiting this location to see the work progress.
Today, all these years later, even the stones are crying out, “How Long O LORD?” May He send us His Redeemer a second time, that we may all shout out, “Blessed is He that comes in the name of the LORD!”
Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, Who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were hewn And to the quarry from which you were dug. (Isaiah 51:1)
D. Thomas Lancaster
Tishrei 12, 5768
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