The Temple Mount

The Temple Institute Illustrated Tour

(read about the Copper Scroll)

The Temple Mount: Dimensions

At the beginning of the Second Temple period, the area of the Temple Mount was five hundred cubits square (approx. two hundred and fifty square meters). During the time of Herod, the area was greatly expanded and reached its present day dimensions, approximately 36 acres (150,000 square meters). The Holy Temple and its courtyards were situated on the Temple Mount.



The Temple Mount: 2nd Temple Era

The bottom left picture depicts the Temple Mount following Herod's expansion to current size, (approximately 36 acres). The top left picture highlights the Holy Temple and the area of the Temple Courtyards, surrounded by the low wall known as the Soreg, beyond which point Jews with tamei met (impurity due to contact with a dead body), and non-Jews, were forbidden to enter. The picture on the right shows Temple priests and Passover pilgrims with their lambs, passing through openings in the Soreg.



The Temple Mount Walls: The Eastern Wall

The wall surrounding the Temple Mount rose to a height of forty cubits. However on the eastern side the wall was lower, so that the kohen (priest) could see directly into the entrance to the Heichal (Sanctuary) of the Holy Temple, while standing on the Mount of Olives, (also called the Mount of Anointing), due east of the Holy Temple, where he slaughtered and prepared the ashes of the red heifer.

The Temple Mount: Sanctity

The Temple Mount was defined as the "Levite Camp." The source for the sanctity of the "Levite Camp" is the Camp of the Levites in the desert; its parallel in the Temple is the entire Temple Mount plaza (seen in the pictures on the right inside the red line), enclosed by the Stoa colonnade. Maimonides writes: “The Temple Mount is more sacred than the city itself, in that women who have just given birth [and others who are temporarily impure] may not enter it... [On the other hand,] a corpse may be brought there, and certainly one who is impure from having come in contact with death may enter” (Beit HaBechira 7:15).

Those forbidden to enter onto the Temple Mount Plaza (Levite Camp) were:

Men and women experiencing irregular emissions.

Menstruating women; Women who had recently given birth.

Lepers. (Lepers were also forbidden to enter the walled city of Jerusalem.)

The Soreg: Those who had been rendered impure through exposure to the dead were not allowed to proceed beyond the Soreg fence, which was a low built partition,(seen in the pictures on the left inside the red line). A number of openings in the Soreg allowed for pilgrims who were permitted, to pass through.

Gentiles were permitted to enter the Temple Mount up until the Soreg fence. Large signs made of stone were placed along the Soreg with warnings engraved on them, forbidding entry to gentiles and those who were impure. Some of these signs have been found in archaeological excavations. Written in Greek and Latin, the signs state: "The stranger may not pass the Soreg and the partition around the Temple. A stranger who enters, does so at his own risk.”

Please visit the Temple Institute Illustrated Tour to read more and view the magnificent photo-depictions for the following:

Temple Mount: The Outer Gates: The Chuldah Gates
Temple Mount: The Chulda Gates: Sanctity
Temple Mount: The Kiponos Gate
Temple Mount: The Kiponos Gate: Function
Temple Mount: The Tadi Gate
Temple Mount: The Shushan Gate
Temple Mount: The Temple Mount Plaza
Temple Mount: The Cheil
Temple Mount: The Temple Mount Wall