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17 August 2016

Fascinating Photos and Depictions Under the Temple Mount

ShiratDevorah: Subterranean Beis HaMikdash has peaked my curiosity and so I did some searching about Under the Temple Mount. This is a exhaustive subject and I’m sure much more can be found, but . . . here we are:

AbsoluteTruth:  I believe we have known for years where the Ark is. There was a famous Archaeologist (Vendyl Jones) who figured it out from scriptures and wanted permission to drill a hole and send a camera down to see it (actually the entire portable Tabernacle that is all set up under ground). He was denied permission since he was probably correct, and they were Erev Rav. He talked about a tunnel that goes from the Temple Mount to Jericho, 18 miles long. He said it is in that tunnel, and even knew the exact spot. One of my readers knew him and, I believe also knows the spot. I think that this is another "when Hashem wants" situation.

YERICHO
Miraculous phenomena occurred in Yericho, which was located some 23 miles from Yerushalayim. Eight different sounds (some say nine) connected to the Beis Hamikdash were heard here. Quoting his rebbi, the Raavad stresses that this incredible occurrence was unique only to Yericho. Some say the sounds travelled through an escape tunnel that King Chizkiyahu had dug from Yerushalayim to Yericho, and others maintain that there are no mountains to obstruct the sound on the way from Yerushalayim to Yericho. Tunnel to Jericho



THE COPPER SCROLL

























(Part of the Copper Scroll)

[I]n the Jewish Herald Voice Houston newspaper in 2000, the Scroll is said to contain the following text:
In the desolations of the Valley of Achor, under the hill that must be climbed; hidden under the east side, forty stones deep, is a silver chest, and with it, the vestments of the High Priest, all the gold and silver with the Great Tabernacle (the Mishkan) and all its Treasures.In the desolations of the Valley of Achor, under the hill that must be climbed; hidden under the east side, forty stones deep, is a silver chest, and with it, the vestments of the High Priest, all the gold and silver with the Great Tabernacle (the Mishkan) and all its Treasures.
What is important here is reference to the Great Tabernacle (the Mishkan) and all its Treasures. This reference is not repeated in other translations of this document at other Internet sites. What is listed on multiple Internet sites is only the following translation:
Column I – In the ruin of Horebbah which is in the valley of Achor, under the steps heading eastward about forty feet: lies a chest of silver that weighs seventeen talents (yard stick).KEN (Note: KEN are mysterious Greek letters in the original text).
More on Vendyl Jones here.


Temple Mount Excavations

"At the "double gateway," a portion only (5 feet 8 inches) of which is seen, further progress is stopped by a wall running southwards; but, entering the city, part of the ornamental arch over the western door is found in a vault of the Khatuniyeh, and thence the southern boundary of the Haram may be traced to the south-west angle. The construction of the "double gateway" will be better examined from the interior; but here it may be noticed that adjoining the relieving arch over the lintel of the eastern door is the Antonine inscription built into the wall upside down, most of the letters still retain their sharpness, and with the aid of a magnifying glass may be read from the photograph; they are shown in Sketch 5, Plate XI.  From Temple Mount Excavations

























Jewish Mikveh Under Al Aqsa Mosque





















Recently photographs from 1927 have been released that show a Jewish mikveh (bath) under the Al Aqsa Mosque.
Mikveh Under Al Aqsa Mosque
It is located somewhere beneath the double passage halls below the Al Aqsa Mosque. Notice the measuring rod and ladder on the floor of this Mikveh, which shows its immense size. In my theory this could possibly be the Mikveh that would have been located under the Chamber of the Hearth.

Notice the comment on the photo says Cistern A. Which may indicate that there is at least a Cistern B.
Cistern A is UNDER the Double Passages, so it is at a very low rock level. It is suspected that there is a cistern at a higher rock level, between the eastern gate of the mosque and the Well of the Leaf, that may also be a Jewish mikveh.
"We theorized in October that the American Colony photographer gained access to the area under the al Aqsa Mosque, partially destroyed in the 1927 earthquake. Nadav Shragai, a scholar on Jerusalem sites, reported in a Yisrael HaYom article last year, that Robert Hamilton, director of the British Mandate Antiquities Authority, had explored under the mosque at the time. He "photographed, sketched, excavated and analyzed" what he saw. But he promised the Islamic Authorities, the Waqf, that he would make "no mention of any findings that the Muslims would have found inconvenient" such as findings from the time of the Jewish Temples.” israeldailypicture.com
From King Solomon’s Quarries


UNDER THE DOME OF THE ROCK
Descent under the "great rock" on Mt. Moriah (under the Dome of the Rock).
Woodcut in explorer Col Charles Wilson's book, Picturesque Palestine, Sinai
and Egypt. (1881, New York Public Library)
[…] discovered additional photos in the American Colony and Felix Bonfils collections showing the entrance to a cave beneath the "foundation stone" (even hashtiya in Jewish tradition) on which the Jewish Temples and the Mosque of Omar* were built.

The Temple Institute in Jerusalem provided details on the cave:

Beneath the rock is a hewn cave [some claim the cave is natural] seven-by-seven meters wide. In the cave's ceiling is a hole approximately half-a-meter in diameter, a sort of chimney going up. A feature in National Geographic suggested that the beneath the cave may be another chamber hiding the Ark of the Covenant: "Knocking on the floor of the cave under the Muslim Dome of the Rock shrine elicits a resounding hollow echo, [but] no one has ever seen this alleged chamber....Famed 19th-century British explorers Charles Wilson and Sir Charles Warren could neither prove nor disprove the existence of a hollow chamber below the cave. They believed the sound reportedly heard by visitors was simply an echo in a small fissure beneath the floor.”

Entrance to the staircase to the cave beneath the Foundation
Stone (Bonfils, circa 1870).





FIRST TEMPLE DEPICTION



The stones for Solomon’s temple may have been hewn and taken from this quarry around 970 BC (1 Kings 6:1):
Solomon had seventy thousand carriers and eighty thousand stonecutters in the hills, as well as thirtythree hundred foremen who supervised the project and directed the workmen. At the king’s command they removed from the quarry large blocks of quality stone to provide a foundation of dressed stone for the temple. The craftsmen of Solomon and Hiram and the men of Gebal (Byblos) cut and prepared the timber and stone for the building of the temple. -1 Kings 5:15-18
It seems certain that King Herod returned here in 19 BC for some of the stone used to build his temple. Some of the stones in the Western Wall, for example, could easily have originated in this quarry.

SOLOMON’s PRAYER PLACE  
under rock of Mosque of Omar [i.e., Dome of the Rock]. This can be seen in the Woodcut (above) to the left, under the staircase. (Chandelier in photo)
























SOLOMON’s WALL



A 3,000-year-old defensive wall possibly built by King Solomon has been unearthed in Jerusalem, according to the Israeli archaeologist who led the excavation. The discovery appears to validate a Bible passage, she says.

The tenth-century B.C. wall is 230 feet (70 meters) long and about 6 meters (20 feet) tall. It stands along what was then the edge of Jerusalem—between the Temple Mount, still Jerusalem's paramount landmark, and the ancient City of David, today a modern-day Arab neighborhood called Silwan. Excavation of King Solomon’s Wall

Chuldah Tunnels Photograph.
This was the first photo ever take in the Chuldah tunnels. [It] was taken during the Wilson expedition of 1864. Actually here are two, but you can see more of Chulda Tunnels photos. Chuldah Tunnels Drawing[s]. The Double and Triple Gates led into 300 foot long tunnels that surfaced on the Temple Mount. (See Rooms 32 & 33.) These accurate drawings were made in the late 19th century. This particular illustration shows the steps that lead from the end of the tunnel onto Har HaBayis. Go to above link to see this.






















Have Skeletons of the Temple Mount Massacre been found?

[A] journalist, Benny Liss, has released a video he took of a cavern under the temple mount that contains a mass grave of skeletons. Liss is suggesting that these are the bones of Jews killed by the Romans when they took the temple mount in 70 CE. According to Josephus, the Romans first entered Jerusalem through the temple complex and then eventually attacked the upper city. Liss suggests that the mass grave is evidence of a Roman massacre of Jews on the site. Archaeologists, however, are not so sure.
"The Romans stayed on the Temple Mount for a month after the destruction of the temple until going on to conquer the upper city [today's Jewish Quarter],” […]“They had to get rid of the thousands of decomposing bodies and the most obvious place to do this would have been the natural caves on the upper slope of the mount, around Mercy Gate."
The veteran journalist emphasized that this was just a theory. "Now, after publishing this information, the experts should go into the field and examine what we found back then, evaluate it and publish their own findings," he says.

Liss does not believe that the remains are Christian since on the lower levels of the mount he has documented systematic Christian burials where crosses, sandals and buckles clearly attest to the religion of the dead. The same cannot be said about the burial site closer to the Mercy Gate.


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http://www.israeldailypicture.com/2012_10_01_archive.html
http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/archaeology/well-of-souls/
http://www.generationword.com/jerusalem101/23-solomon-quarries.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vendyl_Jones
http://www.mywesternwall.net/2014/03/16/room-45-the-chuldah-tunnels-tunnels-hidden-under-temple-mount-mentioned-in-the-mishna.html
http://templemountlocation.com/underAlAksa.html

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