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The Site of the Temple


The Site of the Temple


We have here the best general view of the temple plateau that it has ever been our privilege to see and study. It was not taken by the artist of this expedition, but furnished to one of our editors by the American consul in Jerusalem. It was taken from a housetop in the neighborhood. and we get nothing except a comprehensive view of the temple site with the mountains round about Jerusalem. We see in the picture the mosque of Omar, and beyond us to the southwest, with its smaller dome, the mosque El-Aksa. We see little prayer niches and recesses, walls, stairways, trees casting their dark shadows, the smaller domes and the distant hills. We are able to form a very satisfactory idea of the area on which stood the temple of Solomon a thousand years before Christ, and on which stood the temple of Herod, into which our Savior entered at the time of the royal reception which they gave Him. What memories crowd upon us as we look at these sacred precincts! It was here, no doubt, that Abraham himself offered Isaac; and as we look upon the scene the memory of illustrious names of Jewish and of Christian history are recalled. One of the editors visited this temple area in 1863, when it was much more difficult than now to gain access, and when the Moslems employed to guard the place were much more sensitive than in these days. We trod carefully through all the courts and came to the very rock itself under that splendid dome. In 1887 we arranged our visit with a larger company, and found the old Mohammedan who guided us from place to place full of good cheer and merriment, and we found no frown of disapproval on any face within the wall.


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