Temple Mount Updates - Earthquake at Temple Mount creates 6'x5' hole

[Brianroy]

http://www.templeinstitute.org/images/temple-mount-hole.jpg

Temple Institute Alert - as posted at: The Temple Institute: The Holy Temple: Temple and Temple Mount News

reprinted from Arutz 7
11 Adar 5768, 17 February 08 11:15

by Ezra HaLevi

(IsraelNN.com) An earthquake shook Israel at 12:37 PM Friday. The only damage reported in Israel was on the Temple Mount and near Shechem (Nablus).

The earthquake measured 5.3 on the Richter scale; its epicenter was located in northeastern Lebanon. Earlier last week a quake measuring 4.1 was felt in northern Israel, also originating from Lebanon, near its northern city of Tyre.

A large hole opened up on the Temple Mount during the quake, which was soon covered by officials from the Wakf Islamic Authority that administers the mosques built atop Judaism's holiest site.

The only other reported damage in the Holy Land was incurred between Palestinian Authority-controlled Shechem (Nablus) and Jenin, where an old home collapsed, blocking the main road to the village of Khufin. The village is not far from the site of the Biblical Joseph's Tomb, which was set ablaze by Muslim vandals last week.

At least five people were injured and two homes were destroyed in southern Lebanon as a result of Friday's quake.

Wakf Officials Blame Israel

Wakf officials tried to blame Israel for the 6-foot by 5-foot hole, which is about three feet deep, claiming it was caused by Israel, which it accuses of tunneling beneath the Temple Mount. They demanded an end to all Israeli excavations in the area.

Though several excavation projects are taking place around the Western Wall Plaza, none of them entail tunneling past the wall itself and beneath the mount. The Wakf's official position is that there was never a Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount and has gone to great efforts to erase archaeological evidence of Judaism's historical ties to the site.

Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz issued a statement rejecting the Muslim claims. "These are mendacious reports without a grain of truth," he said, adding that work in the Temple Mount compound would be contrary to Jewish law. "Such claims are a desecration and cause hatred and incitement for no reason whatsoever," Rabbi Rabinowitz said. He stressed that work on the Rambam (Mughrabi) Gate ramp to the Temple Mount is vital for the safety of those who visit the Western Wall and called on the authorities to finish the work speedily.

[kattey]

Thanks for this update.   Of course the Jews did it.  Muslims claim they are responsible for everything that goes wrong in their world.  I wonder if Global Warming will be blamed on the Jews too...

Where exactly was the hole that opened?  Right on the Temple Mount?  Archaeologists who have studied the cavernous space beneath the Mount/Dome say it's so weak it won't take much pressure to collapse it.  When the Muslims were building their new mosques on the Mount, they destroyed Solomons Stables at its southeast corner (supposedly where Jesus' brother James was killed when his enemies threw him off the Mount).  The construction by the Muslims caused a huge bulge to appear on the southside wall near the southeastern corner.  Jordanian and Egyptian engineers repaired it and said the biggest cause of these problems were old age and the weather.

I can't remember where I read this but when the Muslims conquered Jerusalem in the seventh century, friendly Christians (and perhaps Jews) filled them in on the history of the Mount.  They knew that Jews and Christians were waiting for a sign from God to rebuild.  They knew the history but I guess now they forgot.  Or probably they don't care.  Their motto could be gimme gimme everthing!

[Brianroy]

The Temple Mount Archaeological Destruction

The Temple Institute: The Temple Mount: Mount Moriah: Recent Visit: Elul 24, 5767/September 6, 2007

After the opening picture of this next link below...the Muslims have no cause or rights to complain.

The Temple Institute: The Temple Mount: Mount Moriah: Recent Visit: Elul 24, 5767/September 6, 2007

The Temple Institute: The Temple Mount: Mount Moriah: Recent Visit: Elul 14, 5767/August 28, 2007

Eventually, the diggings by the Muslim "construction" will happen upon one of the Mount's water cisterns, and we will be reading how that the hole that has existed for almost 3,000 years now...was somehow recently furrowed by the Jewish conspiracy.  I expect that drop to be as many as 180 feet down when one of these Mt. Moriah / Temple water cisterns are eventually found.  It should be conservatively, in the range between 80-130 feet deep from the surface on which the Muslims are digging, as I understand it.   And it can even -- in our age of technology -- be something as dramatic as a video of a tractor or bulldozer going down into  the cavern head-first with driver, with shrieks as the earth collapses beneath them, etc., when it happens. 

The location of such a deep and large cistern, unlike this first alert "pock-hole",  will potentially be used as a primary point of reckoning to determine the precise location of the Herodian Temple...so it will be something to watch for. 

Peace.

[wc]

Have you folks been as amused as I have been regarding the Waqf at the Temple Mount. Yeah they have done a lot of damage but what has their work proved? They have proved that the temple was in fact where they deny it was! We, of course, have always known the temples existed on the Temple Mount and all they have done is prove how friggin ignorant they are.

[kattey]

I think the Waqf and many other Muslims are dumb on purpose.  They pretend they didn't hear or understand what's going on so they never have to come up with a new response.  I think that is most desert dwellers' traits.  S-l-o-w.  The Muslim clerics, religious police, etc. perpetuate this behavior because a Muslim can get himself killed for going against Islam's teachings.  But I think much of this behavior is based on ancient Arab tribal behavior.

No matter how many times the Palestinians are told if they stop killing Jews and shooting rockets into Israel, Israel will stop her agression, they never "hear" it.  An article in the Jerusalem Post by a frequent contributor said some Arab governments are scared to death to let the people be educated and get ahead because they will lose control over them.  That fear doesn't appear to be true in Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and some other Arab countries, though.  They are progressing rapidly.

[RamboPreacher]

do I dare mention that this hole is the exact location that only a few months ag while visiting the Temple Mount, I discovered that I had a New Testament (very small, keychain size), that I had accidentally brought with me. (we were told not to bring any "sacred" books with us on the Temple Mount, by the armed guards at the metal detector entrance).

I forgot I had it.  when I remembered, I was standing right there and told the tourguide, so that I didn't get arrested or something.  when I got it out to give to him, I dropped it right there.  Interesting. 

[kattey]

Lucky you that you were right there.  What did the southside of the Mount look like?  There are those magnificent stairs that Jesus walked upon, but have those stairs ever been repaired?  Photos show a bunch of rubble next and then the excavation of the City of David.  Did you take photos?

After the terrorist attack on the yeshiva I would like all Palestinians to leave the West Bank and let the Christians and Jews run it.  I'm not in a forgiving mood.  It's time to complete the wall and maybe  build some new ones.  These savages are not worthy of being in the Holy Land of the Jews and Christians.  Maybe Egypt will take over the care of the Palestinians.  The US was just about to give a huge amount of money in aid for the Palestinians--I hope we don't donate it.  It should be donated to New Orleans.

[RamboPreacher]

my sigline has links to my pictures and blog.
here's the pictures - there are thousands:
Picasa Web Albums - RamboPreacher

11/8 was Jordan and Petra.  Starting on teh 9th was Israel.
11th was Qumran and masada - My favorite part of the trip.
12th was when we first saw JeruSalem
13th was the Temple Mount Visit.  not as many pictures as I wanted.  I also was looking for teh devestation traces of the backhoe-trench, but our tourguide didn't let me wander off too far.  bah.

most of the images have XIF GPS information as well, so the picasa site can show the satalite location of (most of) the images.

[Brianroy]

City of David Dig Reveals Information on Ancient Postal System
   

reprinted from Arutz 7
23 Adar 5768, 29 February 08 02:18

by Ezra HaLevi

(IsraelNN.com) Artifacts from City of David excavations in Jerusalem reveal an interesting tidbit of information about the ancient postal system in Israel.

In an archaeological excavation being carried out at the "Spring House," near the Gihon Spring in the City of David - in the valley east of JerusalemÕs Old City, soil was excavated which contained pottery shards that date to the Iron Age 2 (eighth century BCE).

"Whereas during the ninth century BCE, letters and goods were dispatched on behalf of their senders without names, by the eighth century BCE the clerks and merchants had already begun to add their names to the seals," concluded the Antiquities Authority.

Wet sifting and sorting through the soil revealed three fragments of clay stamps used to seal letters or goods in ancient times. Two more stone seals were recently found as well. All of the objects bear Hebrew names and all date to the eighth century BCE.

Among them is a seal that was discovered intact, bearing the Hebrew name "Rephaihu (ben) Shalem", who lived in the City of David in Jerusalem during this period. The seals were primarily used by public officials, according to Professor Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa and Eli Shukron of the Israel Antiquities Authority, who oversee the dig.

"In contrast with the large cluster of bullae (seals) that was found two years ago, in which all of its items contain graphic symbols (such as a boat or different animals - fish, lizards and birds) but are of an earlier date (end of the ninth-beginning of the eighth century BCE), the new items indicate that during the eighth century BCE the practice had changed and the clerks who used the seals began to add their own names to them."

The Israel Antiquities Authority, together with the Nature and Parks Authority and the Elad Association, discovered the seals during ongoing intensive excavations being carried out on the eastern side of the Old City of Jerusalem.
 


1st Temple Seal Found in City of David
 
reprinted from The Jerusalem Post
Feb. 28, 2008

by Etgar Lefkovits

An ancient seal bearing an archaic Hebrew inscription dating back to the 8th century BCE has been uncovered in an archeological excavation in Jerusalem's City of David, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Thursday.

The find reveals that by 2,700 years ago, clerks and merchants had already begun to add their names to the seals instead of the symbols that were used in earlier centuries.

The state-run archeological body said the seal, which was discovered near the Gihon Spring in the City of David outside the walls of the Old City, bears the Hebrew name Rephaihu (ben) Shalem, a public official who lived in the Jerusalem neighborhood during this period.

The excavation, which is being carried out by Haifa University Professor Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron of the Israel Antiquities Authority, also uncovered pottery shards that date back to the Iron Age 2 (8th century BCE), which they used to date the seal, as well as fragments of three bullae, or pieces of clay that were used to seal letters or goods.

The discovery revealed an interesting development in the ancient world: whereas during the 9th century BCE letters and goods were dispatched on behalf of their senders without names, by the 8th century BCE the clerks and merchants had already begun to add their names to the seals, the archeologists said.

"In contrast with the large cluster of bullae that was found two years ago, in which all of its items contain graphic symbols [such as a boat or different animals - fish, lizards and birds] but are of an earlier date [end of the 9th-beginning of the 8th century BCE], the new items indicate that during the 8th century BCE the practice had changed and the clerks who used the seals began to add their names to them," Reich said.

The excavation, which is being conducted together with the Nature and Parks Authority and the support of the City of David Foundation, is one of several digs taking place in the City of David.
 
 

[Brianroy]

Police Prevent Muslims from Paving Road leading to Temple Mount

reprinted from Ynet News
Mar. 7, 2008

Several Islamic Movement activists arrived at the Temple Mount compound Friday morning and attempted to pave the road leading to the place.

A police force prevented the activists from doing so. (Aviram Zino)
   
(Activists now...but the Palestinian Authority, perhaps, later?)     
     
       
     
Police Stop Islamic Work on Temple Mount

reprinted from The Jerusalem Post
Mar. 4, 2008

by Etgar Lefkovits

Police on Tuesday stopped Wakf Muslim trust officials from performing unauthorized construction work on the Temple Mount.

Officers blocked workers from continuing unauthorized "surfacing work," said Jerusalem police chief Cmdr. Aharon Franco. "It is our duty to ensure that the status quo is maintained on the Temple Mount."

He said Wakf officials had planned to carry out the work as a result of the tensions in east Jerusalem over the recent violence in the Gaza Strip and that the unusual police intervention sparked opposition on the holy site.

According to decades-old regulations, Israel maintains overall security control at the site, while the Wakf is charged with day-to-day administration.

Independent Israeli archeologists have long charged Islamic officials with destruction of antiquities at the site and blamed the government and the Antiquities Authority for turning a blind eye due to the political sensitivities involved.

Antiquities Authority spokeswoman Yoli Shwartz said Tuesday that the police had alerted the Authority about the issue, and that it would be "examined" in the coming days.

Palestinian Authority Jerusalem Affairs Minister Adnan Husseini said police stopped the "restoration work" of "deteriorated tiles" on the northern side of the Temple Mount.

"They are not digging or doing anything there but restoration," Husseini said.

Franco said that maintaining Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem, including its Temple Mount, were "top police goals."

To that end, Franco said, police worked to keep the Temple Mount open to people all of faiths over the last year, after years when restrictions were imposed on Jewish and Christian visits due to concerns over Palestinian violence there.

More than 5,200 Israeli Jews visited the Temple Mount in 2007, an increase of 6.3 percent over 2006, while nearly 240,000 foreign tourists visited the ancient compound last year, a 41.4% increase over a year earlier.
      

[Brianroy]

Another Second Temple Quarry Uncovered

Blog from Leen Ritmeyer (posting on quarry will eventually phase out)...Dr Leen Ritmeyer’s blog  

Temple Mount quarry found
May 20th, 2008 by Leen Ritmeyer

It was reported today that another quarry has been found in Jerusalem, whose stones may have been used in the construction of Herod’s Temple Mount. The largest stone is said to measure 0.69 x 0.94 x 1.65 m. It has been suggested that these stones may have been used to build the Western Wall, but that is doubtful. The measurements given are of an unfinished stone. These quarry blocks needed trimming to make them suitable for building and that would make them smaller. The average height of the stone courses in the Temple Mount walls is 104-112 cm and the unfinished stone is only 94 cm high. It is possible, however, that stones coming from this quarry may have been used for the buildings and porticoes that stood on top of the Temple Mount and that is very exciting.

Last year, a quarry was found which produced much larger stones and these may indeed have been used in the construction of the Temple Mount walls. Although archaeologists are quick to claim that these stones were used in the Western Wall, we need to realize that identical stones were built in the southern, eastern and northern walls of the Temple Mount as well. There is no way of knowing where the stones of these quarries have been placed.

How were stones quarried? I have written extensively about the quarrying and transportation of these large stones in The Quest, pp. 132-137 and also in Secrets of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, pp. 53-58.

...

Quarrying was done by digging channels in the rock, which were later filled with dry wooden beams. Once these were wedged into place, water was poured over the dry wood, causing it to swell. The expanding wood caused the stone to split off the quarry bed.

Projections were left on either side of the stones, which were used to lift the stones sufficiently high to put a roller underneath. Using oxen and replacing the rollers, the stones were brought to the building site.

One can see how much work was involved in the quarrying and transportation of one stone! It is amazing to realize that it took only eight years to build all the retaining walls of the Temple Mount. Truly, whatever one might say about Herod’s character, he was a master builder!






from The Jerusalem Post
May. 20, 2008

by Etgar Lefkovits

For the second time in the past year, archeologists have uncovered a Second Temple Period quarry whose stones were used to build the Western Wall, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Monday.

The latest archeological discovery was made in the city's Sanhedria neighborhood, located about two kilometers from the Old City of Jerusalem.

The quarry was uncovered during a routine "salvage excavation" carried out by the state-run archeological body over the last several months ahead of the construction of a private house in the religious neighborhood.

The quarry is believed to be one of those used to build the Jerusalem holy site because the size of the stones match those at the Western Wall.

"Most of the stones that were found at the site are similar in size to the smallest stones that are currently visible in the Western Wall, and therefore we assume that the stones from this quarry were used to build these structures," said Dr. Gerald Finkielsztejn, director of the excavation.

The stones were dated by pottery found at the site, he added.

"This is a rather regular quarry except that there are really big stones," Finkielsztejn said.

The largest of the stones found at the quarry measures 0.69 x 0.94 x 1.65 m, while some of the stones were apparently ready for extraction but were left in place.

The quarry was probably abandoned at the time of the Great Revolt against the Romans in 66-70 CE, he said.

Last year, archeologists unearthed an ancient quarry that supplied enormous high quality limestones for the construction of the Temple Mount in an outlying neighborhood of Jerusalem.

Dozens of quarries have previously been found in Jerusalem, but these are the first two that archeologists have uncovered which they believed used in the construction of the Temple Mount.

A few dozen quarries were likely used in the building of the Temple Mount, said Prof. Amos Kloner, a former Jerusalem district archaeologist at the Israel Antiquities Authority.

He said it was "no surprise" that the first two had been found, and noted that the neighborhood where the latest quarry was found was in itself built on top of a quarry.   
     
     
  Second Temple Quarry Used For Kotel Discovered

 from Arutz 7
15 Iyar 5768, May 20, 2008

(IsraelNN.com) A Second Temple Period quarry that was used to mine the stones that built the Western Wall has been discovered in Jerusalem's Sanhedria neighborhood.

The Antiquities Authority says the quarry was revealed during the excavation stages routinely carried out before the building of a new home.

"Most of the stones that were found at the site are similar in size to the smallest stones that are currently visible in the Western Wall, and therefore we assume that the stones from this quarry were used to build these structures," Dr. Gerald Finkielsztejn told the Jerusalem Post. The stones were also dated by the pottery found at the site.

This is the second such quarry discovered in the past year.
   
 

[JohnStevenson]

What did the southside of the Mount look like?  There are those magnificent stairs that Jesus walked upon, but have those stairs ever been repaired?  Photos show a bunch of rubble next and then the excavation of the City of David.  Did you take photos?

I was there last summer and the stairs leading up to the Hulda Gates on the south side of the Temple Mount are still there and in fairly good repair considering their age.  And yes, I have photos; some are on my website.  I'm attaching one in which you can see the outline of the Hulda Gate in the wall, though it is hard to see the steps from that angle.

[kattey]

Thanks, Dr. John, for your photos.

A new quarry discovered, I think it is northwest of the Temple Mount, is one of the sites the Israelis just announced they have plans upon which to build more apartments.  It has never been developed before, it's a hill.  Of course the Palestinians are complaining, but the Jews say they already control those hills.  Did you see this site?

[Brianroy]

Arguably, some may say, Leen is THE cutting edge scholar on the placement of the Jewish Temple at the Mount.

Whether he is, or just one of them, his blogs are fascinating to those of us looking for the restoration of the next Jewish Temple at the Mount...as those who will build it will need exact placements to within a millimeter for the altars, etc.

Dr Leen Ritmeyer’s blog  

Support for the Temple and the making of its artifacts are not only actively on-going, they are being Sanhedrinally blessed via:

The Temple Institute: The Holy Temple in Jerusalem: Yesterday Tomorrow Today

May HASHEM speedily rebuild His Temple.

Shalom.

[Brianroy]

The Temple Institute has put just forth the following:

http://www.templeinstitute.org/events.htm#guidebook

Official Wakf Document:
King David Purchased the Temple Mount
and King Solomon Built the Holy Temple

 

As suspicions arise that the lame-duck Israeli government led by Ehud Olmert is working feverishly to arrive at an eleventh hour agreement with the Palestinian Authority's Abu Mazen to divide the city of Jerusalem, which would include relinquishing complete control of the Temple Mount to Palestinian and Moslem hands, the Temple Institute has just acquired a copy of the OFFICIAL 1925 SUPREME MOSLEM COUNCIL (WAKF) GUIDE BOOK TO THE TEMPLE MOUNT in which the Temple Mount's clear and unshakable connection to the G-d of Israel and His people Israel is openly admitted.

This admission contradicts the current Palestinian/Moslem claim that the Holy Temple never stood upon the Temple Mount, and that the Mount is the sole possession of the Moslem nation.

At this time, when the cowardly government of Ehud Olmert is all too willing to accept the deceitful Moslem claim at face value in an attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of its own people, (and all nations which desire the rebuilding of G-d's Chosen House), and rob them of this most holy site on earth, it is essential to expose the current Moslem lie. And what better way than through their own words. To read more, and to view a fascimile of the entire 1925 guidebook, please click

The Temple Institute: The Official 1925 Supreme Moslem Council Guide Book to the Temple Mount

The Temple Institute has acquired a copy of the Official 1925 Supreme Moslem Council (Wakf) Guide Book to the Temple Mount. Of particular interest is page four, paragraph two, in which the booklet admits proudly to the Temple Mount's inexorable connection to the Holy Temple built by King Solomon on land purchased by King David, complete with a reference to II Samuel 24:25.

In recent years the Moslem Wakf has come to deny the historic existence of the Holy Temple, claiming that the Temple Mount belongs solely to the Moslem nation, and that there exists no connection between the Jewish nation and the Temple Mount. It is clear from this pamphlet that the revised Wakf position strays from traditional Moslem acknowledgment of the Mount's Jewish antecedents. The current denial of historical reality is merely one tool in the war being waged by Moslems against the G-d of Israel and the entire "infidel" world.

A second reference to the Second Temple is made on page sixteen, again in the second paragraph describing the underground chamber known as Solomon's Stables. Quoting the Jewish historian Josephus, the document cites the "conquest of Jerusalem by Titus in the year 70 AD."

To download a fascimile of the entire sisteen page guidebook, please click


http://www.templeinstitute.org/1925-wakf-temple-mount-guide.pdf