First Person: Temple Mount Repairs Leave Eyesores

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Two unsightly scaffolds hang from the walls of the Temple Mount, one on the southern wall and a second on the eastern wall. The question is whether they will be there forever.

Worse things have happened in Jerusalem. An old wooden ladder sits above the entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It has been there for more than 200 years and cannot be moved because of warring factions of priests with jurisdiction in the church.^a

The story of the hanging scaffolds goes back to the early years of the 21st century, when dangerous bulges appeared in the southern and eastern walls of the Temple Mount threatening to compromise the walls’ integrity.^b The probable cause was the illegal excavation in the southeast section of the platform by the Muslim Waqf (which controls the surface of the Temple Mount) to create an impressive staircase down to the underground area of arched vaults known as Solomon’s Stables, which is now being used as a mosque. (Another underground mosque is adjacent to Solomon’s Stables.) The staircase area was excavated with a bulldozer, and the Waqf dumped hundreds of truckloads of this precious, archaeologically rich earth from the Temple Mount into the adjacent Kidron Valley. It is now being recovered and sifted in a project led by archaeologists Gaby Barkay and Zachi Zweig^c they are recovering thousands of artifacts from pottery to seals to coins and even parts of a column.

Whether the bulges in the southern and eastern walls of the Temple Mount were caused by the Waqf’s excavation is, like almost everything in Jerusalem, hotly disputed. The Waqf flatly denies that its excavation caused the bulges. They suggest they were caused by the Israeli excavations decades earlier at the southern wall of the Temple Mount. Another speculation is that these walls were simply weakened over the years by erosion. A small earthquake (as earthquakes go) in February 2004 may also have contributed to the situation. Added to this was a particularly heavy snowstorm that year that some said also played a part. Hamas charged that the Israelis had deliberately done the damage to undermine Al-Aqsa Mosque, which sits on the southern end of the Temple Mount and is the third holiest site in Islam.

What was not disputed, however, was that the situation was dangerous and must be corrected.^d If the walls collapsed, it might indeed undermine Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The next problem was who would do the necessary work. Israel would not allow the Waqf to do it, and the Waqf would not agree to allow Israel to do it. This standoff lasted for more than a year, while the walls continued to deteriorate. A compromise to which both parties eventually agreed was found in an 074offer by Jordan to undertake the task.^e

The Jordanians have now completed their work and have long gone home. But they have left a scaffold hanging at the top of the southern wall and another at the eastern wall. No one knows when they will be taken down—if ever.

Both archaeologists and tourists say that the Jordanians have done a terrible job. The Jordanians may have reinforced the walls, but the unsightly appearance of the new sections of wall, where the bulges had been, is entirely out of keeping with the ancient ashlars. No effort was made to blend in the new wall sections with the old walls. The new sections bear all the marks—color, smooth surface and size—of new work. Perhaps the hanging scaffolds are justified as conforming to the ugliness of the new sections of wall. They’ve been there now for several years. How much longer?

Two unsightly scaffolds hang from the walls of the Temple Mount, one on the southern wall and a second on the eastern wall. The question is whether they will be there forever. Worse things have happened in Jerusalem. An old wooden ladder sits above the entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It has been there for more than 200 years and cannot be moved because of warring factions of priests with jurisdiction in the church.a The story of the hanging scaffolds goes back to the early years of the 21st century, when dangerous bulges appeared in the […]