The Grand Portico That Once Stood on the Edge of the Temple Mount

July 22 2020

While not the most just or most popular ruler, Herod the Great—who ruled Judea from 37 to 4 BCE—was an ambitious builder, littering his kingdom with impressive structures. His massive expansion of the Temple complex in Jerusalem includes what is now known as the Western Wall, as well as a vast semi-enclosed building at the southern end of the Temple Mount, known as the royal stoa or portico. With a roof, and rows of columns in lieu of walls, the portico could be used for public gathering and commerce, and was described by the ancient historian Josephus as “more noteworthy than any [similar structure] under the sun.” The Biblical Archaeological Society describes what creating such a structure entailed:

The undertaking itself involved building beyond the topological boundaries of the Temple Mount. Massive retaining walls were constructed to hold the fill dirt needed to create the surface on which to build the royal portico. Recent excavations of this area revealed the ritual baths of houses that must have been dismantled in order to expand the Temple Mount for the project.

None of the masonry of the royal portico survived in place, which made it very difficult for modern archaeologists to know what it looked like. Yet, architectural fragments that had fallen to the foot of the southern enclosure wall, after the severe damage from the Roman sack of Jerusalem in 70 CE, have been found [in] archaeological excavations.

To date, more than 500 architectural decoration fragments dated to the Herodian period have been unearthed. . . . Many of the extensive decorative elements are reflected in modern Jerusalem, but some show a unique combination of eastern and western influences.

Read more at Bible History Daily

More about: Ancient Israel, Archaeology, Herod, Jewish architecture, Temple Mount

Donald Trump’s Plan for Gaza Is No Worse Than Anyone Else’s—and Could Be Better

Reacting to the White House’s proposal for Gaza, John Podhoretz asks the question on everyone’s mind:

Is this all a fantasy? Maybe. But are any of the other ludicrous and cockamamie ideas being floated for the future of the area any less fantastical?

A Palestinian state in the wake of October 7—and in the wake of the scenes of Gazans mobbing the Jewish hostages with bloodlust in their eyes as they were being led to the vehicles to take them back into the bosom of their people? Biden foreign-policy domos Jake Sullivan and Tony Blinken were still talking about this in the wake of their defeat in ludicrous lunchtime discussions with the Financial Times, thus reminding the world of what it means when fundamentally silly, unserious, and embarrassingly incompetent people are given the levers of power for a while. For they should know what I know and what I suspect you know too: there will be no Palestinian state if these residents of Gaza are the people who will form the political nucleus of such a state.

Some form of UN management/leadership in the wake of the hostilities? Well, that might sound good to people who have been paying no attention to the fact that United Nations officials have been, at the very best, complicit in hostage-taking and torture in facilities run by UNRWA, the agency responsible for administering Gaza.

And blubber not to me about the displacement of Gazans from their home. We’ve been told not that Gaza is their home but that it is a prison. Trump is offering Gazans a way out of prison; do they really want to stay in prison? Or does this mean it never really was a prison in the first place?

Read more at Commentary

More about: Donald Trump, Gaza Strip, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict