Stables of Solomon
It was on Tuesday, the 4th of April, that the Greeks sought Jesus, and He delivered his discourse based upon the fact that the hour was come in which the Son of Man should be glorified.—John 12:20–50. He went up to the Mount of Olives and delivered his discourse concerning the overthrow of the temple and the end of the world. It was while on the Mount of Olives that He gave the parables of the ten virgins and of the talents.The view which we present on this page represents the vaults under the temple area. They are called Solomon’s stables. Just why, nobody knows. The first distinct account of these stables is given by a tourist about 1772. A traveler mentions them as capable of holding two thousand horses. It is probable that they were used in the time of the Crusaders as stables. The floor of this vault is a little over thirty-eight feet below the level of the pavement above.
The semicircular arches are eleven feet five inches in span and five feet nine inches in height. The aisles open from the south to the north. While these vaults are not supposed to date earlier than the Byzantine period, the stones of which they are constructed evidently belonged to buildings of an earlier period—as far back as Herod, and perhaps Solomon.
Many Jews sought refuge in these subterranean vaults during the struggle against the Romans. They were used also in the Middle Ages by the Crusaders. Solomon’s intercourse with Egypt introduced horses into the domestic establishment and cavalry into the army. For the first time the streets of Jerusalem heard the constant rattle of chariot wheels.
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