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But does it out-Herod Herod? In an effort to win the loyalty of his subjects and to gain immortality, Herod rebuilt the 500-year-old Second Temple on a grandiose scale. Garrard’s model replicates the results of Herod’s building campaign—in miniature.

Herod doubled the size of the original Temple Mount by extending it on three sides—north, south and west. He added stairways, grand entrances, a bridge to Jerusalem’s Upper City and the Royal Stoa that runs along the top of the southern wall, at left. The Temple, whose entrance faces the rising sun in the east, and its courtyards stand on a platform at the center of the Mount. Garrard’s work on his 12-by-20-foot model has consisted of reconciling various ancient descriptions and of physically reconstructing the edifice in light of recent archaeological discoveries.

Electric lights and sections that can be pulled out for closer inspection allow modern-day visitors to examine areas of the Temple Mount that would have been off-limits to many residents of Jerusalem and pilgrims to the city in ancient times. According to Josephus, foreigners were restricted from the area of the 500 cubit square and Jewish females could not get any closer to the Temple than the Court of the Women (see photo). Even Herod was forbidden to enter the innermost areas.

Garrard has encircled his model with paintings of the surrounding city and countryside and has brought the scene to life with 2,000 small figures dressed in costumes of the day.