Start: Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. Interesting observations.
I came across an interesting selection of photographs, the author of which took a certain route near the Western Wall and made a number of interesting observations. Most of his photos are missing comments (link at the end of the article). I will comment on the most interesting from my point of view.
The plan of the route followed by the author.
Let's start with the southwest outer section of the Western Wall:
Pitch made by archaeologists. The masonry goes very deep. And nearby you can see the masonry of huge blocks. By its condition and high quality of workmanship, one can judge that this is the original masonry, not restoration. The third slide - from the back moan, view of the wall.
Promotional video:
On the Temple Mount there is the so-called Archaeological Park, where excavations were once carried out. Here's what you can observe now:
In the southeastern part of the park.
Immediately under the walls, you can see some kind of buildings filled with rubble stone. According to the official history, these are Byzantine houses. The masonry of the walls is made as if from facing tiles. It is possible that a lot of this is reconstruction. But I think the floors paved with stone blocks are real, Roman era
In one of the houses built from quality stone blocks, there is the Herodian Quarter (Woll Archaeological Museum):
Inside there are expositions of household items that were found during excavations and the remains of walls with surviving mosaics, the same as in all Roman villas. The third slide shows ceramic and stone oil lamps. The traditional question: how and what did the stone ones do?
In the tunnel at the base of the Western Wall. The glass floor covers the shaft, which is a pit 8 m deep (to the base of the wall). During excavations, the remains of an arch were found. Those. all this soil from the inner side of the wall, apparently, was not poured specifically as a fortification protection from undermines or battering tools from the outer side.
Underground tunnel corridors along the wall. Allegedly from the time of the Crusaders and Mamelukes. Why is this wood floor made? Or is the height of the tunnels too high and they decided to split it into two levels?
Warren's Gate (named after the archaeologist) is one of the four gates of the Western Wall. From these photographs, I can see petrified mudflows (with fragments of stones). I don’t think these gates were blocked with such rubble. The buried passage in the tunnel would consist of masonry. So, once these tunnels were cleared, but when they reached this place, the work was stopped. Was it because of the already petrified masses (they were hard to succumb to) or was it prevented by the war between the Crusaders and the Arabs at that time? Yes, it is possible that the crusaders did it. And centuries later, archaeologists cleaned up and made these pits that study the structure of the wall:
It can be seen that at the foot of the wall, on the inside, there are fragments of huge blocks.
The Wailing Wall was explored by digging such tunnels. Supports and concreted opposite part.
Column underground. Apparently she was caught by the crusader while passing the tunnel along the wall - they left her, using it as part of the underground masonry that strengthens the ground. Warren's Gate and this column hint at massive debris damage. Where does the water come from? From the mountain. And this is also indirectly evidenced below.
In the dungeons of the Temple Mount there are also such megalithic masonry in the tunnels. Called: Hasmonean Canal.
There is a water room inside the mountain. Perhaps this place was arranged over a source of water gushing in the body of the mountain. And earlier the source could be more powerful. Streams of water could have caused the destruction of the ancient structures of the Temple Mount.
The entrance is in the northwestern part of this fortress wall. For a person, half the height of this arch is much. Inside, you can see the remains of the original megalithic wall, made up of huge blocks.
Inside the Temple Mount, there are ancient quarries. It is believed that initially these were karst caves from which some volume of stone was taken to reconstruct the wall during the time of the Crusaders. But I do not think that megalithic blocks were cut from here, which are located at the base of the Western Wall and other part of this fortress. Most likely it was the crusaders who turned this place into a fortress.
The remains of this building (if you do not pay attention to the reconstruction and completion in the late epochs) remind me very much in terms of the principle and quality of the masonry in Baalbek. And you?
Author: sibved