Exhibit 50a- Bais HaMikdash. The Bais
Hamikdash as it looked 2,000 years ago. The various doorways and entrances
have been displayed and discussed in other rooms of the Museum. Based on
drawing by L. Ritmeyer.
|
|
|
Exhibit 50b- Bais HaMikdash. The area between the red
lines represents the parts of the original wall that still remain today.
Much of it is hidden below ground. The shaded red area represents the
Kossel HaMaravi, the Western Wall.
|
Exhibit 50c- Churban! The Bais HaMikdash was destroyed
in the year 70 CE. Most of the buildings were demolished. Part of the
Heichal, the main building, still remained. About 65 years later, the
remains of the Heichal were converted into a pagan temple. The pagan
temple stood on Har HaBayis for about 185 years.
|
|
|
Exhibit 50d- Har HaBayis Desolate! In the fourth
century CE, much of the Roman Empire became Christian. This was known as
the Byzantine Empire. The Christian Byzantines had no use for a pagan
temple in Jerusalem and, so, they destroyed the temple that stood on Har
HaBayis. The mountain was now desolate.
|
Exhibit 50e- The Kossel is buried. The Byzantines not
only destroyed the pagan temple but also wished to tear down the walls of
the Temple Mount. The upper portion of the walls was about 3 feet thick
and the Byzantines were able to knock that part down. But, the lower
portion was 7-16 feet thick. They were unable to knock its stones down.
Instead, the Byzantines decreed that all garbage and trash within a
12-mile radius of the Temple Mount had to be dumped against the walls. In
this manner the Temple's walls would eventually become buried and
forgotten.
|
|
|
Exhibit 50f- Dome of the Rock. In the 7th century,
the Moslems captured Jerusalem and began building the Dome of the Rock. They
beat a path over the trash heap to get to the top of the mountain. The path
still remains today, to the right of the Kossel.
|
Exhibit 50g- Bridge. In the 13th century,
the European Crusaders captured Jerusalem. The Dome of the Rock was
converted into a church. The Crusaders rebuilt the bridge that led from
the city of Jerusalem, across the valley, to the top of the Temple Mount.
The bridge is still there today. See Room 23.
|
|
|
Exhibit 50h- The Kossel is Discovered! The European
Crusaders were in Jerusalem for about 100 years. By the beginning of the
14th century, the Moslems regained the city. From the 1500's
until the early 1900's, Jerusalem was part of the Ottoman (Turkish)
Empire. In the mid 1500's, the Ottoman Sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent,
built famous walls around the Old City of Jerusalem which still stand
today. It was during this time that part of the Western Wall of Har
HaBayis, the Kossel HaMaravi, was rediscovered.
|
Exhibit 50I- Area in front of the Kossel. For much the
time between the rediscovery of the Kossel and the Six-Day War, access to
the Wall was denied to the Jews. On those occasions when they were able to
approach the holy site, the open area in front of the wall was less than
20 feet wide. The Jews had to wind their way through narrow alleyways,
often having insults hurled at them and had trash thrown on them from
windows above.
|
|
|
Exhibit50j- Area in front of the Kossel Today. After
the recapture of the Old City in 1967, a spacious plaza was created in
front of the Western Wall. Archaeological excavations began near the
southern part of the Western Wall and along the Southern Wall. The
excavations are continuing today.
|
