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The Location of the Second Temple of Jerusalem, Finally Found Based on a map from 1866	By Stefan Anitei, Science Editor 13th of February 2007, 13:00 GMT Adjust text size:


The Second Temple of Jerusalem was built after the destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians in 586 BC. It lasted from 515 BC to 70 AD, when the Roman troops destroyed it after the Great Jewish Revolt. Many researchers have tried to locate the Second Temple in current Jerusalem, but Professor Joseph Patrich of Hebrew University of Jerusalem and of the Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology comes with a new revolutionary idea in the search for the temple: the archaeological remains ignored for long time by scholars could be the exact location. The new location and its corresponding courtyards, chambers and gates are located in a more southeastern position and diagonal frame of reference than previous hypotheses supposed it would. If this is so, the rock over which the Dome of the Rock mosque was built in the 7th century AD is outside the Temple's limits. The rock is regarded by Muslims to be the place from which their prophet Muhammad rose to heaven and for Jews the site of the Isaac's binding. Patrich formulated his theory after studying a large subterranean cistern on the Temple Mount, 4.5 m (15 feet) wide and 54 m (160 feet) long, located in the southeastern corner of the upper platform of the Temple Mount and mapped by British engineer Sir Charles Wilson in 1866. Studying the southeasterly configuration of the cistern with branches towards north and south, added to the descriptions of each day's rite in the Temple and its surroundings found in the Mishna (the Rabbinic Oral Tradition made in the 3rd century AD), the researcher pointed out that the cistern is the only one located on the Temple Mount. It fits the Mishna descriptions of the daily purification and sacrificial rites carried out by the priests on the altar in the Temple courtyard. "On this basis, one can "reconstruct" the placement of the laver (a large basin) that was used by the priests for their ritual washing, with the water being drawn by a waterwheel mechanism from the cistern" Patrich said. The priests climbed the nearby ramp to the sacrificial altar. Finding the locations of the laver, the water wheel, the ramp and the altar, researchers could determine the location of the proper Temple, with its gates and chambers, checking at the same time with Mishna's texts. Considering all these factors, Patrich made a draft of the Temple and its surroundings, removing it further to the east and south than what the classical concepts sustained, at an angle more to the southeast from the eastern wall of the Temple Mount, and not perpendicularly as previous theories imagined. Image credit: Leen Ritmeyer

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