Courtesy Benjamin Mazar, Archaeological Expedition of the Hebrew University and the Israel Exploration Society near the Temple Mount

An artist’s reconstruction of the southern and western area of the Temple Mount, based on archaeological evidence, as it looked in Herod’s Jerusalem in the first century A.D. On top of the southern part of the Temple Mount is the colonaded Royal Stoa. Below the southern wall are the broad steps leading to the Double Gate The stairway eading from the Temple Mount down into the valley near the southwest corner is supported by an arch, the spring of which has survived and is known as “Robinson’s Arch.”