Secrets of Jerusalem's Temple Mount
by Leen and Kathleen Ritmeyer
Book Review by Carl Drews
October 2002
Copyright 2002 by Carl Drews
The Secrets
From the title of this book you expect to learn the great secrets of the ancient Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Indeed, that's exactly what happens! You will learn the location of water cisterns in hidden tunnels below the Mount, the arches and gates that formerly led to King Herod's great Temple platform, the location of Solomon's original Temple, and even where the Ark of the Covenant rested within the Holy of Holies! Wow!
These discoveries are not revealed as Indiana Jones would discover them in the movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Readers expecting a swashbuckling adventure with plenty of fight scenes will be disappointed. Instead, archaeologist Leen Ritmeyer makes his discoveries by patient observation, consulting ancient sources, asking permission from the religious and political authorities who control the Temple Mount today, discussion with Hebrew archaeologists, and plenty of quiet reflection over what he has observed. In other words, he learns things the scholarly way, the way that works.
If you want to be an archaeologist, or you think it's neat to look at a lot of old stones, or think it would be interesting to go on a dig sometime, then this is the book for you. In addition to the Secrets mentioned above, you will learn how to distinguish at a glance between Herodian, Hasmonean, and Persian masonry. You will learn how to cut 80-ton blocks from solid limestone and place them in walls 100 feet high, using only Iron Age tools. You will learn to observe minor details, like the "bend" in the eastern wall, and draw significance from them. This book helps you get in touch with your Inner Archaeology Geek.
History
By ancient tradition, Temple Mount is on Mt. Moriah in Jerusalem. Moriah is where Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac, according to Genesis 22. The rock upon which the ram was eventually sacrificed instead is still known as The Rock, or es-Sakhra in Arabic. The Koran does not specify the name of the son who came under the knife, and Muslim scholars a few hundred years after Muhammad concluded that it was Ishmael, not Isaac. This is a piece of ground with a long, long history! No wonder we fight over it.
The Hebrew Temple in Jerusalem was originally built by King Solomon and dedicated in 953 BC. Nebuchadnezzar destroyed it in 586 BC when he conquered Jerusalem and carried the surviving inhabitants away to Babylon in captivity. The modest Second Temple was built by Nehemiah and the rest of the returning exiles about 50 years later. King Herod the Great (ruled 37-4 BC) rebuilt the Second Temple into the largest temple complex in the ancient world. It didn't last long, though - the Romans under Titus leveled the place in 70 AD when they crushed the Jewish revolt.
The Muslim Dome of the Rock was built on the Temple Mount in 691 AD by Caliph Abd al-Malik. The Crusaders turned it into a church after capturing the Holy Land in 1099, but Saladin converted it back to an Islamic shrine when he expelled the Crusaders in 1187. The modern nation of Israel captured Temple Mount and the Old City of Jerusalem in 1967 during the Six-Day War. The Third Temple, hinted at by Biblical prophecies, has yet to be built. It's difficult to foresee when it ever will be.
The bad news for anyone interested in rebuilding the Third Temple of Yahweh is that Leen Ritmeyer places the Dome of the Rock right smack dab on top of where King Herod's Temple used to be. Ritmeyer deduces this placement by working from the outside in: by locating Herod's huge Temple platform, then calculating where Solomon's smaller platform stood within that, and finally locating the Holy of Holies. Ritmeyer's conclusion confirms what interested observers have known intuitively for centuries: if you want to rebuild the Temple, the Dome of the Rock is in the way. In fact, Ritmeyer convincingly suggests that the Ark of the Covenant once rested in a rectangular depression still visible on es-Sakhra. Ritmeyer's placement of the Temple is now the majority view among Biblical archaeologists, with some dissenters who place the Temple at the north or south end of Herod's platform.
Israel conquered the Old City of Jerusalem on the third day of the Six-Day War, in June 1967. The paratroopers were overcome with emotion upon entering the Jewish Holy Places from which they had been banished 2,000 years ago by the Romans. "[Defense Minister Moshe] Dayan marched triumphantly to the Temple Mount. There he suggested to [General Uzi] Narkiss that part of the Old City walls be pulled down - an ancient practice symbolizing conquest. Rabbi [Shlomo] Goren also had an idea: In preparation for the imminent Messianic era, the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] should utilize the explosives it had on hand and demolish the Temple Mount's mosques. Narkiss ignored both proposals." (Oren, page 246)
Lest any Muslims be outraged at the suggestion to demolish the Dome of the Rock and the El-Aqsa mosque, please remember that the Israelis were returning to their holiest shrine after being barred by the Jordanian authorities since 1948. This was a suggestion from an extremist in a moment of religious fervor, and it was rejected. Upon hearing news of the capture of Temple Mount "[Israeli Prime Minister Levi] Eshkol wasted no time in placing the Holy Places under the jurisdiction of their relevant clergy - rabbis, Muslim clerics, the Catholic Church." (Oren, page 246) The facts are clear: The Islamic shrines were not damaged, and they remain intact and under Muslim religious authority to this day.
Careful Observation
Those Muslim authorities are understandably not very keen on somebody digging up their third holiest place, and active archaeology is not permitted on the Temple Mount. To address this problem, Leen Ritmeyer had to rely first on historical records of excavations conducted many years ago. The best modern records come from the excavations conducted in 1867-1870 by the Englishman Sir Charles Warren, whom Ritmeyer calls "the greatest underground explorer of Jerusalem of all times." (Ritmeyer, page 59) Warren worked for the London-based Palestine Exploration Fund, and together with his faithful assistant Henry Birtles he surveyed "the mysterious caverns, caves, tunnels, and cisterns that lie underground beneath the Temple Mount." (Ritmeyer, page 59) Charles Warren was determined as only an Englishman in Arab lands can be, much like General Charles Gordon of Khartoum and Colonel T.E. Lawrence of Arabia. He personally dug, descended, crawled, and wriggled through 36 of 37 underground structures, sometimes getting soaked in cold dark water for hours at a time. Warren published his carefully detailed surveys in an album entitled Plans, Elevations, Sections, etc., and this album is what Ritmeyer used to determine the underground layout of the Mount.
Since he could not dig, archaeologist Leen Ritmeyer was forced to walk around on top of Temple Mount instead, making careful observations and thinking about what he saw. Ritmeyer seems to have benefited greatly from this "handicap." In Secrets of Jerusalem's Temple Mount he describes noticing that a step at the northwest corner of the Muslim platform is not quite aligned with the platform, but with the eastern wall of the Mount instead. Hmmm. That's odd. Further examination reveals a difference in the type of stone used there, and eventually Ritmeyer realizes that the misaligned step is actually an original corner of Solomon's Temple platform. Aha! With that discovery, other puzzle pieces also fall into place. Ritmeyer obviously has the trained eye of an archaeologist who has been part of countless excavations, and he makes it look easy. After reading a few chapters I found myself thinking: "Hey, I could do that! I could just walk around the ruins at Ephesus, or Rome, or the Acropolis, keep my eyes open, and make some cool discoveries, too!"
My favorite sentence of the book comes as Ritmeyer is describing his idea for the resting place of the Ark of the Covenant, in a rectangular spot cut into es-Sakhra: "I knew that if I were to claim such a function for the rectangular depression without proper investigation I would be dismissed as a sensationalist crank, as has happened to many others who have claimed to have found the Ark of the Covenant or to have identified its former location on the Temple Mount or elsewhere in the world." I greatly appreciate Ritmeyer's careful scholarship! He supplies documentary evidence and literally considers all the angles before arriving at a conclusion. He consults with professional colleagues. If our understanding of Temple Mount is to advance, it will come not from wild claims but by careful detective work. Leen Ritmeyer has done his homework.
Secrets of Jerusalem's Temple Mount does not speculate on whatever happened to the Ark of the Covenant, or where it might be now if it was not destroyed in antiquity. Various rumors have the original Tabernacle and the Ark still hidden in the tunnels somewhere under Temple Mount. Of course you and I know that the Ark is in Axum, Ethiopia. ;-)
Some archaeologists are minimalists who conclude that if we haven't found physical evidence for some Biblical event, then it didn't happen. Since we haven't found Egyptian inscriptions referring to Moses, then he must not have existed. I think this viewpoint is historically arrogant. A Christian believer's reaction to the minimalist view may be to reject archaeology altogether, to refuse to consider any historical findings in fear that they might somehow disprove the Bible. I think this reaction is unnecessary. Absence of evidence is only weak evidence of absence. The fact is that most archaeological discoveries have confirmed the Biblical accounts. Jerusalem itself stands as a mute but eloquent witness to the historicity of the Gospels. Archaeology teaches us more about the times of Jesus Christ, and it illuminates the Bible. Standing on the Temple Mount, with remnants of the holy places all around us, we see the physical history of our faith.
Sources:
"Secrets of Jerusalem's Temple Mount", book by Leen and Kathleen Ritmeyer, 1998. Biblical Archaeology Society, 4710 41st Street NW, Washington, DC 20016.
"Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East", book by Michael B. Oren, 2002. Oxford University Press, Inc., 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016.
"Herod's Roman Temple", by David Jacobson, article in periodical Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 2002. Biblical Archaeology Society, 4710 41st Street NW, Washington, DC 20016.
"The Legacy of Abraham", article in TIME Magazine by David van Biema, September 30, 2002. Time Inc., Time & Life Building, Rockefeller Center, New York, NY 10020-1393.
