Image Details

Before: Rock ledge 8. To the left of the door leading to Qubbat el-Khadr (a Moslem building near the northwestern stairway to the Dome of the Rock platform) is this hewn rock ledge. The ledge formed part of the southwestern gateway complex leading to the Inner Court (Azarah) of the Second Temple (see plan). The level of the ledge is very close to that of the Inner Court. The orientation of the western face of this ledge is 9° west of north, which makes this face perpendicular to the southern wall of the trapezium-shaped inner court. Since walls in buildings generally intersect at right angles, this observation supports the proposed trapezium shape of the Second Temple.

In the plan of the First Temple, rock ledge 8 falls directly on the western wall of the outer court.