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SUBJECT: APPENDIX C
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APPENDIX C
GREAT STONES — COSTLY STONES — HEWED
STONES
WITHIN the last twenty years much valuable knowledge has been acquired
as to the “Holy City,” and its, wondrous Temple, or rather Temples of
Solomon and Herod, especially as to the questions of locality of the
quarries whence the “great stones” were brought, and the difficulty of
transporting them to their destination. The valuable labors of the Engineers
of the Palestine Exploration Fund have done much towards determining the
location of the quarries; indeed, it may safely be said that the long-existing
doubt is solved.
The Reverend J. King, in “Recent Discoveries on the Temple Hill at
Jerusalem,” devotes a chapter to “The Royal Quarries,” from which we
extract a few sentences, and advise our readers to procure the book; it is
published by the Religious Tract Society.
“Every traveler who makes a sojourn in Jerusalem should visit the Royal
Quarries. They are vast caverns, reaching far beneath Bezetha, the northern
hill on which the Holy City is built; and not only do they throw light upon
the stonework of the Temple, but their vastness at once impresses the mind
with some adequate idea of the gigantic character of the sacred edifices
that once crowned the summit of Moriah.”
“When it is remembered that nearly the whole city of Edinburgh has been
built out of Craig Leith Quarry, and that many a town in England has been
built of stone taken from one rock-cut excavation; when, moreover, we
reflect upon the immense size of the Jerusalem quarries, we are led to the
conclusion that all the stonework of the Holy City, including the Temples
of Solomon, Zerubbabel, and Herod, the gigantic walls of the Haram, as
well as the walls encompassing the. city, have been excavated from one and
the same spot, namely, from the Royal Quarries underneath the north part
of the Holy City.”
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“There is a prevailing notion that the polished blocks of Solomon’s Temple
were sent by Hiram from Lebanon or Tyre, but such a notion receives no
proof either from Josephus or the Bible......Hiram sent cunning masons and
stone-squarers to help Solomon’s cunning workmen to cut, square, hew,
and polish the stones for the sacred edifice; but nowhere is it stated that the
blocks were forwarded to Jerusalem.…Indeed, the limestone around
Jerusalem is so abundant, and so excellent in quality, that it would have
been folly to send stones from a distance, as well as an immense labor to
have transmitted blocks, such as now appear in the Haram wall, from
Phoenicia to Jerusalem.”
THE GREAT CORNER STONE
“The foundation stone at the bottom of the south-east angle [of the east
wall of the Temple area] is the most interesting stone in the world, for it is
the chief corner stone of the Temple’s massive wall. Among the ancient
Jews, the foundation corner stone of their great sanctuary on Moriah was
regarded as the emblem of moral and spiritual truths. It had two functions
to perform; first, like the other foundation stones, it was a support to the
masonry above; but: it had also to face both ways, and was thus a bond of
union between two walls. The Bible abounds in interesting allusions to this
corner stone.”
“Seeing, therefore, that the corner stone is a symbol of Christ Himself, it
ought to be regarded as the most interesting stone in the whole world.”
The Engineers, in order to ascertain the dimensions of this foundation
stone, worked round it, and report that it is three feet eight inches high and
fourteen feet in length. At the angle it is let down into the rock to a depth
of fourteen inches, while the northern end seems entirely embedded in the
rock. The block is further described as squared and polished, with a finelydressed
face. It does not appear to have any marginal draft at the bottom,
and indeed this was not necessary, as the lower part being sunk in the rock,
would always be hidden from view; but the absence of the lower draft
indicates that the block was dressed in the quarry in a somewhat peculiar
style, with a view to its being the foundation corner stone. The draft or the
upper margin of the stone is four inches wide. Fixed in its abiding position
three thousand years ago, it still stands sure and steadfast, a fitting emblem
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of the ‘Rock of Ages,’ that cannot be removed, but abideth fast for ever.”
— From “Recent Discoveries on the Temple Hill.”