Hebrew University of Jerusalem Professor Joseph Patrich has uncovered evidence of the exact location of the First and Second Temples on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Using maps created in 1866 by a British explorer, information taken from the Jewish Mishnah, and other archaeological information, he was able to pinpoint their location.
The Mishnah was written in the third century AD to compile the rabbinic oral traditional history that contained information about the Temples.
The First Temple was built by King Solomon in the 10th century AD and was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC. The Second Temple was re-built by Jews returning from Babylonian captivity in 515 BC. It was destroyed completely in 70 AD by the Romans.
Traditional belief held that the Temple had been oriented to the east, but Patrich’s evidence indicates that it actually faced the southeast. He based this conclusion on the existence of an ancient cistern located next to it that was shaped to correspond to the shape of the Temple.
The cistern is about 15 feet wide, 170 feet long, and about 45 feet deep. Water was drawn from the cistern to fill a large basin called a laver that was used by priests for their daily purification rituals.
Tradition also held that the Temple was located on the exact location of the Dome of the Rock, a Muslim mosque that was built on the Temple Mount between 687 and 691 AD. Patrich believes that the First and Second Temples were built slightly southeast of where the mosque now sits, so that a little less than half of the Dome of the Rock rests on the original footprint of the Temple.
The rock in the Dome of the Rock is the traditional place where Jews and Christians believe Abraham was going to sacrifice his son Isaac, and Muslims believe was the place where Muhammad ascended to heaven.
Contrary to Jewish tradition and plenty of archaeological proof, Muslims have long stated that the Temples were never built on the Temple Mount, and that the two temples never existed at all. This is despite the fact that over one hundred immersion pools used by priests for ritual cleansing, artifacts, and tunnels under the Temple Mount have been discovered by archaelologists.
But at least one Muslim does not accept that position. An official of the Waqf was fired from his position after stating his belief that the Temples had existed on the Temple Mount.
The Waqf is an organization that takes care of the Temple Mount under an agreement with the Israeli government.
He said, “Prophet Solomon built his famous Temple at the same place that later the Al Aqsa Mosque was built. It cannot be a coincidence that these different holy sites were built at the same place. The Jewish Temple Mount existed… true Islamic tradition relates the Jewish temples once stood at the site of the Al Aqsa Mosque.”
The Al Aqsa is a separate mosque that was built on the southern edge of the Temple Mount in 709 AD.
He continued, “The existence of the Jewish Temple at the site is obvious according to studies, research, and archaeological signs that we were exposed to. But especially according to the history that passed from one generation to another – we believe the Al Aqsa was built on the same place where the Temple of the Jews – the first monotheistic religion – existed.”
The official, who would not give his name for fear of his life, made these statements in an interview with World Net Daily.
Recently, the Waqf has been excavating the Temple Mount in preparation for construction of a new mosque, hauling away thousands of tons of soil containing what is believed to be artifacts from the First and Second Temples.
According to Eilat Mazor, and archaeologist and the discoverer of the City of David, the palace of King David, and who is also with Hebrew University, the Muslims “want to turn the whole of the Temple Mount into a mosque for Muslims only.”
The Israeli government has agreed to allow King Abdullah of Jordan to build a new 130 foot tall minaret on the Temple Mount. Minarets are towers from which Muslims are called to prayer five times each day.
There are already four minarets on the Temple Mount. Abdullah’s will be the first one built there in over six hundred years, and will be its largest. It is to be built on a site where Jewish groups had wanted to build a new synagogue, but were denied permission to do so.
An official from the Waqf said that the construction of the minaret in place of the synagogue “confirms 100-percent the Haram al-Shariff (the Temple Mount) belongs to Muslims” and “This proves Jewish conspiracies for a synagogue will never succeed and solidifies our presence here. It will make Muslims worldwide more secure that the Jews will never take over the Haram al-Shariff.”
Israel’s Temple Institute director Chaim Richman responded to the announcement, saying “The decision and Israel’s general attitude toward the Temple Mount is the manifestation of spiritual bankruptcy in the country’s leadership. Olmert is turning his back on our Jewish heritage while the rest of the world looks at us with amazement at how we can be so insensitive to our own spiritual legacy.”
Non-Muslims are allowed on the Temple Mount only during certain times of the week, and are not allowed to pray or to bring any kind of holy objects there. They are not allowed to enter any of the mosque buildings on the site with special permission of the Waqf.
The Temple Mount had been open to anyone prior to September 2000, when then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visited it. In protest, Palestinians began an intifada and began throwing stones at Jewish visitors. As a result, Sharon closed the area to non-Muslims for nearly three years.
The significance of Professor Patrich’s proof of the exact location of the First and Second Temples is not just where they were, but that they actually existed. Muslims are working very hard to remove all evidence of their existence to justify their claim that the Temple Mount is actually the property of the Muslims and that the Temples never existed on that site.
Will the existence of an overwhelming amount of evidence that the Temples occupied the site first change the Israeli’s stance on how the Temple Mount is treated? It is doubtful, since any hint that Israel would cleanse the site of Islamic structures and allow the construction of the Third Temple would spark an all-out war with Muslims all over the world.