Sacred Geometry: Unlocking the Secret of the Temple Mount, Part 1

Longtime BAR readers know that two theories vie with each other regarding where the Temple once stood on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. The first was advanced by Asher Kaufman, a Hebrew University physicist with a longstanding interest in the Temple Mount, the second by Leen Ritmeyer, an architectural draughtsman who worked on the Temple Mount excavations under Benjamin Mazar and who is himself a Temple Mount specialist. Hoping to advance the issue, BAR editor Hershel Shanks asked me to weigh the merits of each theory. I, too, am a specialist on the Temple Mount and have published on the subject. I replied that I agreed with neither. This naturally led to an invitation to state my own view; this article is the result.