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I t is well documented that Herod the Great modified the area of the Temple and the city of Jerusalem with vast building projects. But
have modern scholars, historians and religious authorities from the past erred in their placement of both the Solomonic and
Herodian Temples, Fortress Antonia and other landmarks of the ancient capital? The Temples that Jerusalem Forgot indeed makes this
revolutionary claim and premise.

British historian and archaeologist Joseph Trupp, writing in 1855, noted that ancient Jerusalem's topography "is enveloped in grievous
uncertainties" and observed "it can be of no surprise if all traditional knowledge respecting the spots important in the study of Jewish
archaeology should prove to have been completely corrupted or lost ... the utter demolition of the city by Titus renders it probable that
the accurate topography of the ancient city was forgotton at a very early period."

Still, over one hundred and fifty intervening years of research and archaeology have hardly unscrambled this puzzle of the lay of the land
and the positioning of buildings in first century Jerusalem, and there is still hardly one point in the whole topography of the Holy City to
which scholars are entirely agreed. Hershel Shanks, Editor-in-Chief of Biblical Archaeology Review summed up the matter
succinctly in this bold 1999 statement: "Everything you know about Jerusalem is wrong."

The latest and most extravagantly produced and authoritative work on early Jerusalem (City of David, published by the City of David
Institute for Jerusalem Studies, 2008) makes the telling admission that "the Temple Mount area still remains the 'black hole' of
Jerusalem archaeology." And it is the disposition of the Temple Mount that is at the very heart of the matters taken up in this volume.

The two graphic renderings directly below dramatically present just one difficulty with the current and widely accepted view. The
illustration to the left pictures the “Temple Mount” or Haram esh Sharif as envisioned by most scholars. Note especially—in the upper
left hand corner—the standard depiction of Fort Antonia as a modest, diminutive, annex-sized structure, awkwardly connected to the
northern “temple” wall.

The popular view of the Temple Mount in Jesus' time with Fort Antonia A typical Roman fortress.
highlighted.

To the right you will see a depiction of a standard Roman Fortress. The size (generally 50 acres or more), shape and layout were uniform
throughout the Empire. You will notice immediately the striking similarity in the shape, character and dimensions to the Temple Mount
(at 45 acres) enclosure.

A Roman Fortress housed a standard Roman Legion of 5,200 soldiers. A typical fort would also accommodate additional specialized
buildings for blacksmiths, carpenters, butchers, shoemakers, storage for grain and stables for horses. Other specialized buildings were
the Praetorium for the commander, the principia for the administration and hospital. Outside of each Fort, a Roman style bath was
built. A broad avenue for parades and drills, the Via Principalis, would generally bisect the encampment. The walls were massive, and
generally made of stone.

The design, pattern and size was standard throughout the Empire, and the encampment that a complete roman legion would need to
keep Israel under Roman control would have been no different. Thus, it is little wonder that eyewitness Josephus referred to Fort
Antonia as a “city within a city.”

To imagine this vast enterprise fitting into the postage-stamp size (by comparison) Fortress Antonia of popular imagination simply taxes
both the historical record and common sense. For Rome to maintain a fortress on such a small scale in Jerusalem, the most volatile and
potentially explosive of all the locations throughout its vast empire, simply presents just one more difficulty to the commonly accepted
view of placing the Jewish Temples over the Dome of the Rock.

“None of the Jewish Temples were ever built in the area of the Dome of the Rock. Although a popular
theory, it is free from any support from biblical sources. Martin is the first modern scholar to realize this.”
—Professor George Wesley Buchanan
Professor Emeritus, New Testament, Wesley Theological Seminary

IF IT LOOKS LIKE A FORT...

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Below you will see depictions of other actual Roman fortresses throughout the Roman Empire. All are without exception; the same shape,
size, and general character of the structure that is the massive centerpiece of metropolitan Jerusalem today.

The walled “Temple Mount” enclosure exactly mirrors the size, shape and general A typical Roman fort.
character of Roman Legionary Fortresses throughout the empire.

Vindolanda - a Roman Fort in Britain. Schematic Rendering of a Roman Fort.

Chesters - A Roman Fort in Britain. Table Model of Roman fortress at Chesters, Britain.

Legionary Fortresses like this one dotted the Roman

Empire—from Spain to Britain to Germany and the
Middle East. This Roman Fortress at Sergiopolis in
neighboring Syria, was the closest fortress to
Antonia, and these ruins still exist today. Notice its
striking similarity to the outline of the "Temple
Mount" structure, and the consistent "cookie cutter"
shape in size and dimension to other Roman
Fortresses.

Click on image below to view in Google Maps. (Or

search "Sergiopolis near Resafa, Syria" in Google
Earth.)

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“...the arguments regarding the size of Fortress Antonia, based on Josephus and other evidence we have
about Roman military encampments, must be addressed. Martin’s thesis is so bold that it cannot be
ignored.”
—Professor James D. Tabor
Chairman Department of Religious Studies UNC Charlotte

“Antonia was a fortress overlooking the Temple.” —Josephus

Dr. Martin’s premise, depicted above by noted biblical illustrator Balage Balough, shows the massive Fortress Antonia looming over the
Second Temple, placed over the Gihon Spring in the City of David.

The question of Fortress Antonia—along with many other relevant “Temple Topics”—is explored in much greater detail in the pages of
The Temples that Jerusalem Forgot. With extensive footnotes and bibliography, Dr. Martin’s work presents a detailed,
documented, century-by-century account of how historians and the religious authorities of all three Abrahamic creeds lost the knowledge

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of where the Temple stood. Martin solves a host of historical problems that have been debated for hundreds of years.

Temple Introduction | Dome of the Rock | Jewish historian Josephus | Roman Bath Discovered | Balage Balough Temple Gallery

Copyright ©2012 All Rights Reserved.

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