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Here today, gone tomorrow? Archaeological architect Leen Ritmeyer squats next to Herodian paving stones located about 200 feet north of the stairway where later paving has obscured important archaeological features. Ritmeyer identifies this area as part of the northern court of Herod’s expanded Temple Mount platform. The slabs are identical in size and workmanship to the stones used to pave the streets of Herodian Jerusalem.

These exposed remains suggest that a wealth of information could be gleaned from an unintrusive surface survey of the Temple Mount. They also raise a disturbing thought: Were a survey to be conducted one day in the future, what guarantee is there, given the fate of the bottom step of the stairway, that features visible today will not have been covered or altered by then?