"Son of man, describe the temple to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and let them measure the pattern."—Ezekiel 43:10

For centuries, Christian theologians and Jewish scholars have debated the site of the foundation stone on the temple. This was, and still is, a matter of great importance to the Jewish sages because the foundation stone lay directly beneath the Ark of the Covenant. Without knowing the precise location, a temple cannot be built according to the Law of Moses. As it is said in Ezra 5:15, "Let the House of Yahweh be rebuilt on its original site."

The most established place (of the Temple) is that of the altar, and it must never be changed for all eternity.…There is a tradition in the hands of all that the place where (Kings) David and Solomon built the altar is the very place where Abraham erected the altar upon which he bound Isaac.…It was likewise (the altar) built by Noah when he emerged from the ark; it was the altar upon which Cain and Abel offered their sacrifice when he was created, and from there (its dust) was he (Adam) created.¹

The most popular belief is that the stone exists in the center of the Islamic shrine the Dome of the Rock or "Qubbat Al-Sakhra" constructed in AD 687 by Caliph Abd al-Malik. Moslems believe that this shrine was built over the place where Mohamed made his "Night Journey" into the heavens and back to Mecca. This is according to the Koran chapter 17, verse 1, although the passage does not describe the Temple mount in Jerusalem as the location for this event specifically.

In the 1^st century BC, Herod the Great expanded the temple mount enclosure during his renovations of the temple. Further expansion and reconstruction of the temple mount walls were undertaken by the builder of the Dome of the Rock, Abd al-Malik, and later by the Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (1537–1541) after the Ottoman conquest of Israel.² However, the eastern wall and its single gate were left in place due to its location on the edge of the Kidron Valley. In order to extend the temple mount to the east, the valley would have been filled and leveled. This was never undertaken because of the great architectural problems it presented and, more importantly, because the Kidron Valley was necessary for the Levitical rituals of the temple.

First-century historian Flavius Josephus researched and wrote on history of the Jewish Wars, and explained that the wall east of the temple was the only one that Herod did not rebuild.³ In 1983, the Hebrew University physicist Dr. Asher S. Kaufman published a theory that the First Temple and Herod's Second Temple were aligned along an east-to-west axis sighted through the Eastern Gate.⁴ Kaufman’s theory followed the opinion of the great rabbi, Maimonides, who explained that a line running from the Eastern Gate in the wall of the old city of Jerusalem to the west would cross the center of the temple and the Holy of Holies above the foundation stone.⁵

In addition, Kaufman’s theory was based on archaeological evidence collected from the temple platform area and the Talmud’s book of measurement called the Mishnah Tractate or Middot. According to these sources, the true foundation stone lies under a cupola named the Dome of the Jinn, Spirits, or Dome of the Tablets, located on the northwest edge of the temple mount. Both the former and latter names allude to the Ark of the Covenant as the oracle of God containing the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments. The Ark would have rested in Holy of Holies situated furthest to the west in the temple. Further verifying this theory, the Dome of the Tablets is the only place where exposed bedrock exists on the temple mount as the rest of the platform is paved. Not only does this bedrock have the exact dimensions of the foundation stone as recorded in the Talmud, but also several drilled holes spaced according to the Sacred Cubit used only in the construction of the temple.⁶

In 1969, James Flemming, a graduate student of biblical archaeology at the American Institute of Holy Land Studies, was examining the Eastern Gate of the temple mount when he fell into a mass grave at its base. The ground had been saturated with rain during the night, and a hole left from a mortar round from the 6-day war two years before had reopened. Beneath the visible level, he discovered an arch belonging to the original ancient gate of the First and Second temples. He took pictures of the structure before the hole was later filled in and a fence was erected around the grave.

The discovery of the original location of the Eastern Gate provides archaeological proof of the true location of the foundation stone according to the historical accounts.⁷

With the knowledge of the exact location of the ancient foundation stone of the temple, calculations of distance between it and various points on the globe can be resolved to an extremely fine degree. This also suggests that on Mount Nebo, 25.20 nautical miles away, the Ark of the Covenant rests precisely on the same east-west line as the Dome of the Tablets and the Eastern Gate.

NOTES

1. Maimonides, Laws of the Chosen House, 2:1,2. Mishna Torah. Published by Maznaim New York: 1986.

2. Encyclopaedia Judaica, Isidore Singer and Cyrus Alder, et al eds.New York: Funk and

Wagnalls, 1906"Jerusalem, History, Under Ottoman Rule (1517–

1917) Suleiman The Magnificent And His Work".

3. Flavius Josephus, The Jewish War V, 184–189 [v. 1]. (Author), Betty Radice (Author),

E. Mary Smallwood (Editor), G. A. Williamson (Introduction, Translator) Penguin Classics (February 7, 1984)

'Foundation Stone' for the Ark of the Covenant Is Identified." Biblical Archaeology Review, 9, no. 2, (1983): 40–58.

5. Ibid. Encyclopaedia Judaica , "Temple Mount"; Mishnah, Middot 2:1.

6. Ibid. Kaufman "Where the Ancient Temple of Jerusalem Stood, Extant 'Foundation Stone' for the Ark of the Covenant Is Identified.":p. 70–73.

7. Ibid. Kaufman "Where the Ancient Temple of Jerusalem Stood, Extant "Foundation Stone" for the Ark of the Covenant Is Identified." 179–183 & 70–73.