A couple of weeks ago there was an article by Leen Ritmeyer about a new discovery on the Temple Mount.

See the full article here: New Discovery

This picture is from the original article by Arnon Segel.

The article provides a translation of an article by Arnon Segel and then Ritmeyer gives even more information about the Temple Mount discovery and other items in the area.

I was looking for a picture of some wooden beams that I took that were on the Temple Mount for a class that I was teaching tonight so thought I would see if I also had a picture of this area of the platform wall.

I knew that I had taken a few pictures in the area where the discovery was made, but did I have a picture of the blocked arches?

I looked closer in the picture right above this one and found that I had a picture of the arch that was on the left.

It was not that these arches suddenly appeared, it was just that they had never been written about in any of the many research reports on the Temple Mount.

My picture is from a different angle and has trees, but there is a slightly wider view in the Ritmeyer article that also does not show trees. Perhaps they have removed some of the trees and a larger section of the wall can now be seen clearly which made the features stand out.

I decided to look for other interesting anomalies in the wall and found this seam in the wall that shows two different periods of construction. At some point the platform was extended.

Here are the steps on the east side of the Dome of the Rock platform. This is just to the north of the newly discovered arches.

I found that just by the steps is another blocked archway. I assume that this arch has been documented, especially as it is near the steps up onto the platform.

In Ritmeyer’s article he also mentions these two old rocks that are in the wall. He speculates that these may be from the time of Herod’s temple. My picture is from a different angle and definitely from a different time.

These pictures are from 2015 and it looks like they have cleaned things up since then.

Now for the picture that I was looking for. Here is a stack of beams beside the Golden Gate. A couple years earlier than this there was an article in BAR about old beams on the Temple Mount. There is a picture in the article of a much larger stack of beams in the area in front of the gate.

I may have to see if I have more pictures of this area from other trip to the Temple Mount. However, I am not sure if I do as this 2015 trip was the one where I was able to roam around the most and take pictures.

Steven

Update: I found another picture. See: More from the Temple Mount