The Har HaBayit is the sacred enclosure containing the whole Temple complex: a 500-ama square, girded by a wall. Five gates give access to it. The eastern wall is the only low wall, so that the Kohen who burns the para, standing atop the Mount of Olives, can see over it the opening of the Heikhal at the moment of sprinkling.
Dimensions
- 500 × 500 amot (≈ 240 × 240 m at 0.48 m per ama)
- five gates: two Gates of Chulda in the south, Kiponos in the west, Tadi in the north, Shushan in the east
- the eastern wall is the only low wall
Sources
- Middot 2:1
- Middot 1:3
- Middot 2:2
- Middot 2:4“all the walls there were high, except the eastern wall, because the Kohen who burns the para stands atop the Mount of Olives, aims, and sees the opening of the Heikhal at the moment the blood is sprinkled.”
- Rambam, Hilchot Beit HaBechirah 5:1“הַר הַבַּיִת וְהוּא הַר הַמּוֹרִיָּה הָיָה חֲמֵשׁ מֵאוֹת אַמָּה עַל חֲמֵשׁ מֵאוֹת אַמָּה וְהָיָה מֻקָּף חוֹמָה”
- Bartenura Middot 2:4“חוּץ מִכֹּתֶל מִזְרָחִי. הוּא הַתַּחְתּוֹן לְרַגְלֵי הַר הַבַּיִת”
Project decisionTour's choice: nothing blocks the line of sight from the Mount of Olives to the entrance of the Heikhal — no column, no closed gate, no crowd on the east-west axis.