jerusalem temple mount

jerusalem temple mount Latest

Nov 22 Blog

What Did Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem Look Like?

Fifty years ago, leading Israeli scholar Michael Avi-Yonah constructed a now-iconic model of Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem. How accurate is it?

Illustration of a stonecutter using a pickax to cut a channel in a limestone block, while another worker pours water over some logs stacked in the channel between two blocks. Photo: Leen Ritmeyer

Nov 9 Blog

The Stones of Herod’s Temple Reveal Temple Mount History

By: BAS Staff

Building and furnishing the Herodian Temple involved more than stone quarrying and laying, but the stones and foundations of Herod’s Temple can give us clues to Temple Mount history.

The Magdala Stone. Photo: Yael Yulowich, Israel Antiquities Authority

Aug 17 Blog

The Magdala Stone: The Jerusalem Temple Embodied

By: Jennifer Ristine

For a people living in the diaspora, unable to visit the Jerusalem Temple frequently, what kept the memory and centrality of the Temple fresh in their minds? An intriguing stone uncovered at the Galilean site of Magdala might offer a clue.

Jul 12 Blog

The Enduring Symbolism of Doves

By: Dorothy Willette

Few symbols have a tradition as long and as rich as the dove. Read about what it represents and how its use has been shared, adapted and reinterpreted across cultures and millennia to suit changing belief systems.

Jun 5 Blog

Searching for the Temple of King Solomon

By: BAS Staff

The black basalt ruins of the Iron Age temple discovered at ’Ain Dara in northern Syria offer the closest known parallel to the Temple of King Solomon in the Bible.

Sep 10 Blog

Ancient Stone Quarry Discovered in Jerusalem

By: Nathan Steinmeyer

According to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), an ancient stone quarry used during the Second Temple period was recently discovered in Jerusalem. The massive blocks […]

Jan 1 Blog

How Ancient Taxes Were Collected Under King Manasseh

By: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff

A seventh-century B.C.E. clay bulla inscribed in paleo-Hebrew script provides evidence for how ancient taxes were collected during the reign of the Biblical King Manasseh.

Aug 5 Blog

What the Temple Mount Floor Looked Like

By: Frankie Snyder, Gabriel Barkay and Zachi Dvira

More than a hundred colorful polished stone tiles have been recovered by the Temple Mount Sifting Project. The tiles reveal what the Temple Mount floors looked like in Herod’s time. They were paved in a technique called opus sectile.

Feb 10 Blog

The Royal Banquet Hall of King Herod the Great in Jerusalem

By: Robin Ngo

A banqueting complex was recently identified just beside the Temple Mount. Dating to the time of King Herod the Great, it projects the splendor and comfort enjoyed by royal guests.

Sep 2 Blog

Herod’s Temple Mount Revealed in Al-Aqsa Mosque Restoration

By: Noah Wiener

As a result of earthquakes, Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount had to be dismantled and reconstructed in the 1930s and 1940s. Massive Cedar of Lebanon and cypress beams were reused, and others were simply removed. Some of these beams are significantly older than the mosque itself. Were these timbers from Al-Aqsa once part of Herod’s Temple Mount architecture?

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