Herod’s Temple builders used water and ramps
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Archaeologists studying Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem discovered the ancient builders employed sophisticated techniques to quarry and move massive stones.
Leen Ritmeyer, a specialist in Temple Mount history, examined the remains of the construction process, revealing how workers used wooden beams saturated with water to split limestone blocks from bedrock. These blocks, some weighing up to 50 tons, came from quarries near the modern Russian Compound in Jerusalem and were transported downhill to the Temple Mount using wooden rollers and oxen.
The builders didn’t lift the enormous stones into place. Instead, they built up the retaining walls of the Temple Mount in layers, simultaneously filling the space between an older platform and the new wall. This allowed them to lay each course of stones on a new work level created by the added fill. Evidence of these techniques remains visible today, including projections left on some stones that show how ropes and cranes were used to maneuver them.
Smaller stones, weighing only a few tons, were thrown down during the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., but the massive cornerstones still stand over 100 feet above the foundations. The Temple Mount itself was built on top of an existing platform, and the builders cleverly used the existing structure and added fill to expand the area.
