The original temple built by Solomon stood on a hill (about where the Dome of the Rock is sitting). Over the years the temple precinct expanded. It was Herod the Great who gave it the definitive form it has today. In order to provide a flat esplanade for the complex he had retaining walls built up on all four sides, and arched supports set in the slopes, which were then filled over.
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The stones used for the retaining walls remain the largest of any ancient building in the world. Whereas the largest single stone used in the Great Pyramids and in the Stonehenge weigh only 15 and 40 tons, respectively, the largest stone found here is 13.4m/42ft long and weighs over 600 tons. How Herod's engineers managed to move and lift such stones into place remains one of engineering's most intriguing mysteries. The stones were also so precisely milled that, even without the use of cement, not even a knife-blade could be inserted between the stones. All the more amazing, the work went on, as Herod promised the Jews, without interruption to all that was happening in the Temple. Sadly, all Herod's buildings have disappeared. He had made the site one of the great wonders of the Roman world.
After its destruction by Emperor Titus in 70 AD, it was turned into an army campsite by the Romans. The Byzantine Christians treated it as a refuse pit and an accursed site. The Muslims have occupied it since their conquest of Jerusalem in 638.
Jews are today banned by order of the Chief Rabbinate from visiting the Temple Mount, ostensibly for their own protection—just so they do not accidentally step on the ground of the Holy of Holies. But even among themselves this is a subject of heated dispute.
Further Reading:
G. Gorenberg, The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.
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