Temple Mount Sifting Project

DAZZLING DESIGNS. More than a hundred colorful stone tiles that once decorated the floors of King Herod’s Temple Mount have been recovered by the Temple Mount Sifting Project. The technique by which these geometrically-cut tiles were paved is called opus sectile, Latin for “cut work.” Reconstructing the patterns in which these tiles were laid can reveal what the Temple Mount floors looked like in the time of Herod.