The Temple Mount
Leave a CommentThe Temple Mount (Har Habayit, Haram esh-Sharif)is the holiest site for Judaism. The Jewish Temple in Jerusalem stood there: the First Temple (built c. 967 BC, destroyed c. 586 BC by the Babylonians), and the Second Temple (rebuilt c. 516 BC, destroyed in the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD).
Following the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in the year 70, the area of the Temple was deliberately left in ruins (first by the Romans, then by the Byzantines). This desecration was not redressed until the Muslim conquest of the city by the Caliph Omar ibn al-Khattab in 638. He ordered the clearing of the site and the building of a “house of prayer”.
Some 50 years later, the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik built the Dome of the Rock to enshrine the outcrop of bedrock believed to be the “place of the sacrifice” on Mount Moriah. He (or his son, the Caliph al-Walid I) also built the large mosque at the southern end of the Haram, which came to be called al-Aksa after the Koranic name attributed to the entire area.
Hulda Gates
A stairway in front of the north entrance to the al-Aksa Mosque leads down to a vaulted passageway and the walled-up Hulda Gates, which had been an entrance to the Temple Mount Platform at the time of the Herodian Second Temple.
Dome of the Rock
The Dome of the Rock stands on or near the approximate site of the Jewish Temple (most of the scholars today think the rock is the place of the Holy of Holies).
Al Aksa Mosque
The Golden Gate – The House of the gate.
Part of the Antiquities founded on the Temple mount
One of the gate to the Temple mount
Banias
Banias (or Paneas ) located at the foot of theGolan Heights, and is the source of the Nahal Hermon stream. Banias was first settled in the Hellenistic period following Alexander the Great’s conquest of the east. The Ptolemaic kings, in the 3rd century BC, built a cult centre there. The sacred precinct included a temple, courtyards, a grotto and niches for rituals, and was dedicated to Pan. It was constructed on an elevated, 80m long natural terrace along the cliff which towered over the north of the city. A four-line inscription at the base of one of the niches relates to Pan and Echo, the mountain nymph, and was dated to 87 CE.
In 20 BC, Paneas was annexed to the Kingdom of Herod the Great. Herod erected a temple of ‘white marble’ in Paneas in honour of his patron. Remains of a temple built by Herod the Great stand in front of the cave.
After Herod’s death, his son Philip inherited this area, and in 2 BCE Philip founded his capital near the Banias Spring, calling it Caesarea Philippi.
In 61 CE, king Agrippa II renamed the administrative capital Neronias in honour of the Roman emperor Nero, but this name was discarded several years later, in 68 CE. Agrippa also carried out urban improvements.
In 1129 the Crusaders fortify the city and built a fortress.
(Most of the city was not excavated)
The Pan Temple
The Pan Grotto
The court of Pan and the Nymphs
The Temple of Pan & The Dancing Goats
An Altar found in Banias
Roman Bridge On Gobta River
Nahal Hermon stream
Agrippa II Palace
Banias Synagogue
The Cardo
The Crusaders City Gate
Tower Corner
A structure describing the various historical periods of the city of Banias. The Lower wall related to the Late Roman and Byzantine structures, above it Crusador level, Ayyubid level, Ottoman level, and on the Top a modern Syrian building.
