Herod's platform

Today's platform, as Herod enlarged it. The Mishna counts only five hundred amot a side; the tour sets that square inside the present outline, the Kodesh HaKodashim on the rock of the Dome, and paves the rest at the same level.

Dimensions

• outline from OpenStreetMap
• level: the median of today's terrain inside the outline

Sources

• Middot 2:1“הַר הַבַּיִת הָיָה חֲמֵשׁ מֵאוֹת אַמָּה עַל חֲמֵשׁ מֵאוֹת אַמָּה”
• Responsa of the Radbaz, vol. II 691“הַדָּבָר בָּרוּר שֶׁתַּחַת הַכִּיפָּה שָׁם אֶבֶן הַשְּׁתִיָּה בְּלִי סָפֵק”

Project decisionChoice of the tour: the Temple keeps the true east of Middot 2:4; the present outline is turned by six degrees, and its eastern wall runs about ten metres inside the north-east corner of the square. Nothing is built on it: the platform belongs to the Temple.