Guide
The Temple Layout
By Carol Bakhos
Echoing an established genre found in the Bible (see 1 Kings 5–7 and 2 Chronicles 3–4), several ancient Jewish authors offered descriptions of the Temple, including its dimensions and layout. Each of these authors—or groups of authors, in the case of the rabbis of the Mishnah—paid particular attention to the specific features of the Temple that most impressed them and the details that they considered most important. For images of the Temple Mount and its environs, see THE JERUSALEM TEMPLE.
Related Primary Sources
Primary Source
Herod’s Renovation of the Temple
Josephus’ Jewish Antiquities includes a detailed account of Herod’s renovation of the Temple in the late first century BCE. See also “Renovation of the Temple” and the jerusalem temple.
Primary Source
Rabbinic Descriptions of the Second Temple Structure
1:3. There were five gates to the Temple Mount: the two Huldah Gates on the south, which were used for both entrance and exit; the Kiponus Gate on the west, which was used for both entrance and exit…