Acropolis Temple
An archaeologist is dwarfed by the main hall of the 12th-century B.C. acropolis temple. This temple, which possibly replaced the earlier Fosse Temple III, consists of three main parts oriented on an east-west axis (see plan): an antechamber preceding the main hall on the west, the main hall, and a tiny, raised cella, or sacred enclosure. (Note that the doorway between the antechamber and the main hall, seen on the plan, had not yet been excavated when the photo was taken. What appears on the photo as a solid wall between the two rooms is actually the unexcavated balk.) An entrance on the north side of the temple leads to an annex. In the photo, remains of the Judean palace-fort loom behind.
Some structural and ornamental elements survived the temple’s destruction. In the main hall near the entrance to the north annex, an Egyptian-style octagonal column crowned with a square capital lies where it was found by excavators. Too small to be a structural element, this column and two similar ones, now mostly missing or broken, originally abutted the east wall of the main hall. The engaged columns formed niches in which sacred statues or stelae may have been placed, facing the hall.
A monumental stairway leads from the main hall into the cella. Made of well-hewn chalk slabs, only the four lower steps are complete, though parts of the fifth and sixth steps still remain. The seventh, and crowning, step is missing altogether.
