Video Argues that The Wailing Wall is Actually the Archeological Remains of a Roman Fort, not the Second Temple

Direct link in the "source URL". At stake is that, if there is an attempt to build the Third Temple, it would require demolition of the Al Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest religious site in Islam after Mecca and Medina, probably prompting the whole Muslim world, both Sunni and Shi'a, to go to war.

- [Narrator 1] The Temple Mount is an important religious site for Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.

At the center of the site lies the Dome of the Rock. Adjacent to it is the Al-Aqsa Mosque,

which has a massive prayer hall with enough space to accommodate about 5,000 worshipers.

On the western side of the Temple Mount is the Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall.

While Jews refer to it as the Temple Mount, Muslims refer to it as the Haram al-Sharif,

or Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound, or simply Al-Aqsa.

Judaism teaches that the Temple Mount is where the world began.

It teaches that this is where God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac.

It teaches that this is where Solomon and Herod's temple stood.

It also teaches that this is where the third temple will someday be built.

This site is held as the holiest site in Judaism, more holy than the Western Wailing Wall.

Muslims believe that the Dome of the Rock lies where the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven on his horse Buraq.

This makes it the third holiest site in Islam, after Mecca and Medina.

Christians consider the Temple Mount to be an important site due to its significance in the Old Testament and because Jesus would've spent time there.

Additionally, Christians believe that the Temple Mount plays a crucial role in Bible prophecy.

According to 2 Thessalonians 2, it is prophesied that during the end times,

the antichrist will enter the temple and declare himself God.

As a result, many people believe that a third temple must be built for these events to occur. However, the question remains.

Where will this third temple be built?

Bob Cornuke is a former FBI-trained police investigator and served as a SWAT team member.

He is now a biblical investigator, international explorer, and bestselling author, with a compilation of 12 books.

He has participated in over 70 international expeditions,

searching the world over for lost locations described in the Bible.

These journeys include searching for the real Mount Sinai in Egypt and Saudi Arabia,

exploring in Turkey along with Apollo 15 astronaut Jim Irwin for the remains of Noah's Ark.

He has tracked the Ark of the Covenant from Israel to Egypt and across the Ethiopian highlands.

Off the coast of Malta, his research team found the probable four anchors from Paul's shipwreck as described in Acts 27.

His latest extensive research efforts have been in Israel, in search of the true temple site of Herod,

along with the actual location of Golgotha. This documentary will explore the Bible,

history, and archeology,

and uncover incredible discoveries in Jerusalem that changed everything we know about the true location of the temple.

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Around 3,500 years ago, God freed the nation of Israel from their bondage in Egypt.

The Israelites had been captives for centuries and were eagerly waiting for a deliverer to come and bring them back

to the land that God had promised to their father Abraham 400 years earlier.

God raised up a man named Moses to lead his people out of Egypt, but because of their unbelief,

they were made to wander in the wilderness for 40 years.

During this time, God gave the nation of Israel a holy law that included precise instructions for a tabernacle that they were to make exactly as instructed.

God told the Israelites, "Make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them."

This tabernacle had no permanent home until King Solomon fulfilled David's desire to build a permanent house for the Lord during his reign in 957 BC.

This magnificent building, known as Solomon's Temple, stood for nearly 400 years.

However, God's judgment came upon Jerusalem by the hand of the Chaldeans because Israel had broken their covenant with God.

After 70 years of captivity, God put it in the heart of Cyrus, the king of Persia,

to allow Israel to return to their land and rebuild their temple.

God restored Israel to their land and instructed them to rebuild their temple and wait for the coming Messiah to bring a new covenant to the house of Israel.

The second temple was constructed by Zerubbabel. Although it was considered inferior to its predecessor,

the second temple remained standing for several centuries. Herod the Great, who ruled from 37 BC to 4 BC,

was well known for his building skills.

He undertook a renovation project to restore the temple to its former glory,

which was completed shortly before the birth of Jesus Christ. Jesus introduced the new covenant to the house of Israel.

Unfortunately, the Jews did not accept Jesus as their messiah. As a consequence of their rejection,

Jesus declared judgment on Jerusalem and predicted the destruction of the temple.

He further prophesied that not a single stone of the temple would be left upon another.

In 70 AD, the temple was destroyed exactly as Jesus had prophesied.

This event led to the scattering of the Jews throughout the world, which is known as the Diaspora. Since then,

Jerusalem has been the most disputed piece of land on Earth, with its ownership being fought over for nearly 2,000 years,

enduring numerous battles and bloodshed.

Throughout history, various groups of people have occupied and conquered the city,

and the exact location of the temple has been completely lost. For more than a millennium,

the Temple Mount has been considered as the traditional site of Solomon and Herod's temple.

While various theories have been proposed to pinpoint its exact location, most people agree that it is indeed situated there.

But is this belief rooted in historical fact or is it merely tradition?

Bob Cornuke has devoted many years searching for the lost temples of Solomon and Herod.

He believes that the Bible, history, and archeology all indicate a different location in Jerusalem than what is traditionally believed.

His quest for the true location was inspired by his reading of Matthew 24, where Jesus prophesied the destruction of the second temple.

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- The Bible does talk about the destruction of the temple clearly in Matthew 24.

- [Narrator 2] "And Jesus went out and departed from the temple;

and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, 'See ye not hold these things?

Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.'" #NAME?

Jesus himself prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem in Matthew 24, in the famous Olivet Discourse

where he said there would not be one stone left upon another.

Bible prophecy is very clear that Jerusalem would be destroyed, and that is exactly what happened.

- Total and complete eradication,

like you take a tree and lift it up and the forest roots and all and cart it off and throw it away somewhere, it's totally gonna be gone.

And so Jesus says those stones will be totally destroyed down to the last one. Not one stone will last. Well, today we have thousands of stones up there,

some of 'em as big as a truck cab.

And the Jews around Jerusalem today say Jesus is wrong because we still have those stones up there. They know scripture, they know what Jesus said,

and they're saying, "Hey, Jesus said every stone should be thrown down."

We should pay attention with what Jesus said because every stone was thrown down.

- [Narrator 1] If Jesus said that every stone of the temple was thrown down,

how could the stones from the Western Wall be from Herod's temple?

Either Jesus was wrong or perhaps those stones were not part of the temple at all.

Historian Flavius Josephus is the only witness that we have a record of who lived during the destruction of the temple.

And he wrote that the temple was completely destroyed after 70 AD.

He said that, "If he had not personally been in Jerusalem during the war and witnessed the demolition by Titus of the temple that took place there,

he wouldn't have believed it ever existed."

- Josephus was a Jewish general that became a Roman historian. He must have been a smart guy.

He must have been known for his writing because then he was asked by the Romans to write the history of the area.

- [Narrator 1] Famed Jewish historian Flavius Josephus was born in Jerusalem in 37 AD,

not long after Christ's crucifixion. The son of a priest, he became a Pharisee,

a military commander in the Jewish resistance, and an eyewitness to Jerusalem's destruction in 70 AD.

Josephus's works provide valuable details that do not survive in other records. For instance, most of our knowledge of Herod's temple,

which Christ often visited, comes from Josephus. #NAME?

- And so we can be reasonably certain that he had a clear sense of the appearance of the place,

the general dimensions of the place,

the types of ceremonies and other functions that took place at the Temple Mount.

- He was given King Herod's court records to use as a resource for his writings. And they gave him carte blanche.

Oh, yeah, anything Josephus wants, they just wrote up the permission slip, and anything he wanted, he got.

- [Narrator 1] While every historian is fallible and must be read with care, historians can be very helpful,

especially when they report firsthand knowledge.

- [Josephus] Caesar gave orders that they should now demolish the entire city and temple.

It was so thoroughly laid even with the ground by those that dug it up to the foundation,

that there was left nothing to make those that came thither believed Jerusalem had ever been inhabited."

- When you look at the historical evidence,

the destruction of Jerusalem was exactly like Jesus said it would happen. There was not one stone left upon another.

When the Romans burned down the temple,

they wanted to get all that gold and everything that melted down into those rocks, and so they stripped everything down to the foundations.

It was just like Jesus said. There wasn't one stone left upon another. - [Narrator 1] During the Roman-Jewish War of 66 to 70 AD,

the temple was demolished down to the bedrock,

likely due to the immense value of the gold that adorned its walls. Flavius Josephus wrote...

- [Josephus] "The entire face was covered with gold." - And when the fire caught, the gold would melt,

and it would seep in between the rocks. The whole floor of all of the temple area,

where the sacrifices were, had slats in it so that the blood from the animals could flow down and then be flushed away.

Well, the gold melted and went in there also.

- [Narrator 3] "Many Jews hid gold and silver within the walls of various structures, thus raising the city with fire.

The Roman army literally ripped every building apart stone by stone to recover the massive treasures of gold

and silver that melted into the cracks and crevices of various bricks."

- [Narrator 1] Josephus describes how Titus removed a phenomenal amount of gold and silver and plentifully distributed among them.

We can conclude from Josephus's writings that this is why the temple was so thoroughly demolished.

The Romans wanted the gold. Why else would they have torn down every stone, as the Bible describes?

We know gold and silver melt in fire,

and the Jewish temple was burned to the ground by the Romans.

Another historical account of the destruction of Jerusalem is written by historian and Catholic bishop Eusebius of Caesarea.

As a friend of Constantine,

he was granted access to the imperial archives and had the opportunity to study a wide range of documents.

His writings are fascinating as they include extensive quotations from long lost sources

which cover one of the most critical periods in history that we have little information on today,

- [Eusebius] The hill called Zion and Jerusalem, the building there, that is to say, the temple, have been utterly removed or shaken,

in fulfillment of the word." - When we read Eusebius,

he talks about the stones of the very temple being carted off and being used for public works.

How sad that must have been for those in Jerusalem to see the temple, the beloved temple, the holy temple,

being dismantled block by block down to the very foundations. It was completely and totally eradicated.

- [Narrator 1] The Romans took complete control of Jerusalem in 70 AD, and from that point on, had total control until about 330 AD.

The big question is, where did the Roman soldiers live during this time? History tells us they lived in the Roman fortress,

but the problem is that no one has found one brick of this Roman fortress.

- We're talking over 300 years and they haven't found one stone from the Roman fort?

It's because it's been sitting in front of their eyes all this time.

- [Narrator 1] The Antonia Fortress was originally built by Herod the Great in Jerusalem between 37 BC and 4 BC.

It served as a military barracks for the 10th Roman Legion, also known as Legio X Fretensis.

The fortress was an impressive architectural feat, essentially a city within a city.

Its primary purpose was to safeguard the second temple and to serve as a symbol of Roman power to anyone who dared to challenge the might of the Roman Empire.

Additionally, it provided a place of refuge for Roman soldiers during times of unrest and was instrumental in maintaining peace and order during the Roman occupation of Jerusalem.

Although Herod rebuilt and likely expanded the Antonia Fortress, it had previously existed as the Baris.

This was a Greek word for tower that John Hyrcanus built to replace the previous citadel or fortress that had defended the temple even before Nebuchadnezzar's destruction of Jerusalem.

Modern scholars tend to downplay the importance of the Antonia Fortress,

describing it as a relatively small annex located at the northwest corner of the Temple Mount Complex.

But is this depiction accurate? - When you go to the Israel Museum, and they have a very good model of the city,

but one of the areas that is inaccurate is gonna be that they have a small Antonia Fortress

at the northwestern corner of the Temple Mount.

- The model that we have at the Israeli Museum today is almost laughable. And I hate to be that harsh in that cutting,

but it is flawed in so many ways.

Tourists go, they're believing that what they're seeing is an accurate depiction. But if you look at it and study the Bible,

it is wrong on a lot of levels.

They needed to put this Roman fort somewhere because no one's found one stone of it. So if this is the Temple Mount, they say that has to be the place of the Roman fort,

even though there's no foundations there, an artist drew it in, it's in every textbook you'll see in the world, just like this, in that size.

And so he put the temple where he wanted the temple. He put the the Roman fortress where he wanted to put it. He put roads in where he thought that they should go.

He just let his imagination go wild.

If you've never seen the Grand Canyon and I said draw the Grand Canyon, it's a deep hole in the ground and it's kind of pretty, you'd have a million different people drawing, you'd have a million different opinions.

He had one opinion, and that's unfortunately became the opinion that stuck.

What they're seeing is somebody from the imagination of a man, which I think is completely wrong.

I think his understanding of what it was like back then is completely an error.

- [Narrator 1] The traditional view of Fort Antonia only takes up about three acres of real estate.

But how could the 10th Roman Legion live in such a small space?

- [Josephus] "For there always lay in this tower a Roman legion."

- There were 6,000 soldiers in a legion and 4,000 support personnel. What you're seeing marching towards you,

to the gap you're gonna see in a moment, is about 600 guys.

So 10 times what you see here is how many soldiers there were over there, with an additional 4,000.

Now would they fit in that little area up there, which is about the size of this church auditorium? No, it's ridiculous.

And then we see Josephus saying also, "Now, as to the tower Antonia, it might seem comprised of several cities."

- [Narrator 1] What happened to the Roman fortress Antonia after the destruction of Jerusalem? Was it also destroyed along with the temple?

According to historical records,

General Titus returned to Rome after the fighting ended and left Legio X Fretensis stationed in Jerusalem.

Their role was to suppress any remaining resistance in Judea and maintain Roman rule over the region.

The fate of the fortress was documented by Josephus in his book "War of the Jews." He recorded the speech given by Eleazar ben Ya'ir,

the commander of the besieged fortress at Masada. - [Josephus] "Where is this city, Jerusalem,

that was believed to have God himself inhabiting therein? It is now demolished to the very foundations,

and hath nothing but that monument of it preserved, I mean the camp of those Romans that hath destroyed it,

which still dwells upon its ruins." - Let me distill it down.

He's saying that the one thing that's still existing in Jerusalem is the Roman fort, and everything else is torn down. There was a couple of little small walls,

there was a couple of small towers here and there, but it looked like Hiroshima after the atomic bomb. It was leveled. (explosion rumbling)

But yet this glorious fort is still there according to Eleazar.

And think about it, the Romans had forts that are usually about 36, 37 acres. They're very large, high-walled structures. Throughout the whole world, when Rome conquered somewhere,

they established a well-fortified fort. But he said that the Roman fortress was not destroyed. It still stands upon the ruins of Jerusalem.

The Romans aren't gonna destroy their own fort that they made and they're gonna need it afterwards after rebellion is crushed. So they didn't destroy their fort.

Well, that's what we have today as far as the Temple Mount. People say,

Oh, that big, high-walled structure you see in Jerusalem with the gold dome where they believe the temple is, that's the place of the temple. Absolutely not. That was a Roman fortress.

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- [Josephus] When he entirely demolished the rest of the city, and overthrew its walls, he left these towers as a monument of his good fortune."

- What does a Roman fort look like?

Well, we can go back in history and we can see through drawings or through actual foundations.

And even today, we have models of the Roman fortress. And they were the size of several cities. Here's one drawing,

and you can see that it has granaries and hospitals. It had the place for the officer's quarters. It had places for the soldiers' barracks.

It would've had possibly courthouses, libraries, places for the horses, the military equipment,

you know, all that kind of storage that you would find in a huge military presence, whether today or long ago with the Romans.

Here we have an aerial view of an ancient Roman fort. You can see it's rectangular in shape. We see Roman forts in models. If you go today to Europe,

you'll go to the visitor centers of some of these ruins, and they build these models.

And a lot of these models are actually built after the ruins that were in these different places throughout Europe and the Middle East.

And the interesting thing is they all seem to be very similar in that they're rectangular in shape, which if you really look at the Temple Mount today,

it is rectangular in shape,

and it has the very size and complexion as what you see in these Roman forts throughout the world. - To house that many people,

you need a relatively large area. And we found some previous settlements

of Roman legions that just by coincidence occupy an area almost exactly the same size as the Temple Mount.

One of the artists and a pretty good historian himself superimposed an encampment of a different Roman legion

on top of the Temple Mount, and it fit almost exactly.

- There's no way we can see what Jesus and his disciples were looking at in his day. He said it's all gonna be gone.

And some of the things that we're looking at over in the traditional location could have been seen in Jesus' day.

- I don't know how these people go on their tours with their Christian tour guides and they point to that wall and say, "This is the wall of the temple,"

when Jesus says every stone will be thrown down. You can't have that. You can't reconcile that.

I believe that Jesus was 100% right in his prophecy and that every stone was thrown down,

as Eusebius says in history, as Eleazar, as Josephus. They all say it's complete and totally annihilated.

So we've gotta go with what the evidence shows and what history says. No, Jesus was 100% right.

And those stones up there were not thrown down because they're the stones from the Roman fortress Antonia.

- [Narrator 1] The Bordeaux Pilgrim is one of the earliest recorded Christian witnesses to visit the Holy Land.

He or she is in fact the only eyewitness from 70 AD to 370 AD to document the existence of Fort Antonia in Jerusalem.

- We have people from history, such as the Bordeaux Pilgrim. The Bordeaux Pilgrim in 333 was right here.

The Bordeaux Pilgrim was a pilgrim that came to Jerusalem,

wrote and gave us a description as to where the Roman fortress existed. - [Narrator 1] In 333 AD,

the anonymous Christian pilgrim from Bordeaux described the only structure of significance located east of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

as having walls, plural, where Pontius Pilate had his house,

the Praetorium, is where the Lord's case was heard before he suffered. - [Narrator 4] In the Roman world at the time,

the word Praetorium was another synonym for the residence of the Roman general who had his abode in the center of a military camp of the legions."

- The notation is that from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, while the Bordeaux Pilgrim looked east,

he or she saw the Roman fort,

and said in the periphery of the view was this massive fort due east of where the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is located.

We're in a tower next to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Quite high, it gives us a great vantage point. But you can see, if you scan your eyes going to the east,

you see what the Bordeaux Pilgrim saw.

And that is the area today which is called the Dome of the Rock. So the Bordeaux Pilgrim said,

Looking east, you see the Roman fort stretched out before you.

That's what we see right now today is we see the Dome of the Rock, which is not the place of the temple.

It's the place of the Roman fort according to an eyewitness in the year 333 AD.

Scholars ignore that.

And I don't know why scholars ignore it other than it doesn't fit with their paradigm.

They probably wrote a book about the temple being on the Temple Mount and they don't wanna accept this information. That cannot be the place of the temple.

The Bordeaux Pilgrim tells us that that was a Roman fort due east of here. So this is where we have to follow.

We have to follow the clues like breadcrumbs through history that will lead us to the ultimate truth.

- [Narrator 1] Another significant proof that the Temple Mount was once the Roman fortress can be found today only a few feet from the Western Wall.

If you take a guided tour underground, you'll see the inscription FRET, F-R-E-T,

carved into the wall, which is short for Fretensis, which was the 10th Roman Legion.

- What we have here is an amazing inscription that says the 10th Roman Legion.

And this is solid, solid evidence, inscription evidence,

which inscriptions are usually the silver bullet of archeology.

Very few inscriptions in stone that shows and says that this is the 10th Roman Legion.

Well, it's very interesting because we find it to be located... Here's the western Wailing Wall here. So what do we have?

60 feet away is where the inscription is that says the 10th Roman Legion,

which would've marked the entryway into their fort.

This inscription is strong evidence that it was in fact the fortress Antonia and not the temple.

The temple correctly should be in the City of David, where the Bible and history says it should be.

- One of the tenets of the military that we're always taught is to control the high ground.

And so as you look at the geography of that area,

it becomes apparent that the high ground in that area in and around the Jebusite city was Mount Moriah.

So from from just a pure military perspective, I would want to put my camp on the highest ground I could,

which back then was Mount Moriah. - [Josephus] For If we go up to this tower of Antonia,

we gain the city since we shall then be up on the top of the hill." - If we look at Josephus's writing,

we get a significant clue as to where the temple is really located.

He talks about a bridge going 600 feet north from the temple, connecting to the fortress Antonia,

so the Romans could keep control and watch on and have access to the temple area if there was some kind of rebellion.

- [Josephus] "Now as to the Tower of Antonia,

it was situated at the corner of two cloisters of the court of the temple; of that on the west, and that on the north."

- Josephus's writings talk about the Roman fortress being a guard to the temple, literally higher in elevation.

- It was so large that in fact he says you could not see the temple if you approached Jerusalem from the north.

- [Josephus] "The tower of Antonia was the only place that hindered the sight of the temple on the north."

- There's another clue from the Bible that talks about the Roman fortress being in a higher elevation than the temple.

- [Narrator 1] There is a story in the Book of Acts that describes when the commander of the Roman soldiers

quickly deployed troops from the fort down to the temple to rescue the apostle Paul from a riotous situation.

- One interesting fact that we see in the Bible that tells us a little bit about Fort Antonia and its location in relation to the temple can be found in Acts 21.

- [Narrator 2] "The Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him, crying out, 'Men of Israel, help.

This is the man, that teacheth all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place: and further brought Greeks also into the temple,

and hath polluted this holy place. And all the city was moved, and the people ran together: and they took Paul, and drew him out of the temple.

And as they went about to kill him, tidings came unto the chief captain of the band, that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.

Who immediately took soldiers and centurions, and ran down unto them." - That's the key word.

They took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. Right above us here is what I think is the Roman fort.

The steps would've come right down to here. - So what we see going on here is the apostle Paul,

he gets arrested, they come down the steps to get him, they're taking him back up to the castle, and he stops on the steps somewhere in that area,

and he preaches to all those Jews that were in an uproar because he was in the temple.

- [Narrator 2] "And as Paul was to be led into the castle, he said unto the chief captain, 'May I speak unto thee?'" - So right here,

as they're getting ready to go to the castle, and then in verse 40... - [Narrator 2] "And when he had given him license, Paul stood on the stairs,

They needed to put this Roman fort somewhere because no one's found one stone of it. So if this is the Temple Mount, they say that has to be the place of the Roman fort,

- So we see that after the Romans come down to the temple to arrest Paul, they're taking him back up. And while he's on the stairs, somewhere in this area,

he looks down over the temple area and he preaches to the Jews.

- [Narrator 1] There is a very interesting writing by Josephus in his book, the "War of the Jews,"

where he tells us exactly where the eastern cloister of the temple was located. - In describing these ancient walls of the City of David,

he says they went around to the Pool of Siloam. Then it says the walls turned east.

And then the walls went, coming up in a northerly direction, and then it intersected with the Ophlas.

And that is the place he said is where the eastern cloister of the temple is. That's a mic drop moment,

when I found that in Josephus's writings. He gave me a map leading me directly,

and exactly, and precisely where the temple is. - [Josephus] "Now that wall went southward,

having its bending above the fountain Siloam, what it also bends again towards the east at Solomon's pool,

and reaches as far as a certain place which they call Ophlas, where it was joined to the eastern cloister of the temple.

(lighthearted music)

- And this is actually where history collides with his words. And it paints a picture for me that tells me clearly,

clearly Josephus is saying where the Ophlas is of the Ophel, of the ancient wall, that that's where the eastern cloister of the temple was.

He was an eyewitness in the first century. So here's an eyewitness, not some scholar in the 21st century,

but an eyewitness in the first century saying the temple was right here. And there's no arguing what he's saying.

He's either lying or he's telling the truth and this is the place of the temple of Solomon and Herod.

Any police investigator with any modicum of talent could have figured that one out a long time ago. But historians have ignored that.

Scholars have ignored that because it gives a different narrative.

It says the temple is in the City of David and not up on the Temple Mount, so it was ignored. But I didn't ignore it.

I followed it and it led me right to where I believe the temple should be. (bold music)

- [Narrator 1] So if historical and biblical evidence places the Roman fort on the Temple Mount,

why do most people today believe that this is where the temple was actually located?

After 70 AD, the Jews were banished from Jerusalem, and all remembrance of the temple was removed.

Over time, the people forgot and the history was lost. - We don't have a definitive location where the temple is.

Even upon the Temple Mount, people are arguing where it was up there. We do not know where the temple is.

When people were debating where the temple was in the fourth century,

we had several places were being suggested as where the temple was. They just looked up and saw this big huge monument,

and it was the Roman fortress Antonia, which was still existing, and they said that has to be the place of the temple.

And people have said this over and over and over throughout the years, thus it becomes history,

when it's nothing more than speculation and tradition.

- [Narrator 1] One important event that promoted the Temple Mount being the location of the temple was the invasion of Jerusalem by the Crusaders.

- It's when the Crusaders came over here and breached the walls in July of 1099, at the behest of Urban II, the Pope.

It was a holy war, saying if you go fight, you'll have eternal life. You don't have to go through purgatory.

o these farmers, and knights, and everybody amassed in this huge army. They came here, overrun the walls, and killed everybody inside,

and they took back what was once the Roman fortress. The Muslims had it. This was controlled by the Muslims.

And on the top of what we see is that big gold dome today.

It was kind of a pewter-colored then and it had a crescent moon on the top of it, the symbol of Islam. And the Crusaders went up, tore that off,

put a cross up there, wired it up there, and called it Templum Domini, which means the house of the Lord.

That was the little match that lit the roaring forest of tradition on fire that that is the temple.

And from this point on, we have people telling about it generation after generation after generation to the point that it's not even contested.

- [Narrator 1] July 15, 1099, 70 years after the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem,

a Jew from Spain, Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela, visited Jerusalem and wrote,

The Western Wall is one of the walls of the Holy of Holies. This emphatic statement seemed to seal the tradition.

And from that point on, it has been virtually unchallenged. - We have tradition saying that it's there and not fact.

The Bible, however, takes us in a different vector. The Bible pulls us down south 600 feet, to Gihon Springs,

and that is in the City of David as the place of the temple. Years ago, I sat in the office of Hershel Shanks,

who is the editor of Bible Archeology Review, the most prestigious bible archeology magazine ever.

And he said to me, he said, "Bob, 95% of all places that we go to in Jerusalem,

archeologically speaking, are wrong. But we know one place for sure.

There's no doubt about it, none at all.

And that's where the temple of Solomon and Herod are located." One day someone hands me a book,

a book by Ernest Martin. And he said the temple is in the City of David. He got his news from Benjamin or Ory Mazer,

which were the grandfathers of all archeology in Jerusalem.

And they told him the temples are in the City of David.

We cannot write a book about it, we cannot tell anybody in the press about it, but we are digging up the City of David,

and we have evidence to show that the temple is in the City of David. He said, "Why don't you tell people?" He says, "Our lives will be ruined, our careers are over with.

Our families will be attacked in Jerusalem going against such a beloved...

You understand that people in Israel are beloved of that sight. If we say anything, we'll be destroyed."

So I started on a journey of testing it through not tradition, but through the lens of biblical verses.

And I become almost obsessed with finding out the truth. Could all these people, for all these years, be wrong?

Could the temple be in the City of David?

And I believe, and I'm gonna make a proclamation right here from this stage,

that the greatest mistake in archeological history has been made by saying that the temple is up on the Temple Mount.

Being a former police investigator, I used to put my heart and soul into every investigation.

I wanted to find the truth. I did not want to put the wrong guy in jail, God forbid.

So when I started doing research on the temple and where the temple's located, I realized this is God's lost city.

People have been trying to figure out this thing for a long time. And so I decided to look at it in a different lens.

I started pulling pieces together out of history, out of the Bible, out of eyewitnesses such as Josephus.

And I was alarmed to find that everything was like a riptide pulling me down southward to the City of David.

(lighthearted music)

- [Narrator 1] The City of David is a 12-acre plot of land south of the Temple Mount.

3,000 years ago, the City of David had an estimated population of only around 2,000 people.

To understand the history of the City of David, we must go back to 1003 BC,

when King David arrived in Jerusalem and found a city called Jebus, which the Jebusites inhabited.

- We have to go back to 2 Samuel, way, way, way back in time. In 2 Samuel 5:7, it says... - [Narrator 2] "Nevertheless,

David took the stronghold of Zion: the same as the City of David." - I wanna paint a picture. Right where I'm standing right now, there was deep walls.

And these deep walls, we can see today, and you'll see those today. These deep walls go down from a deep height, going down into the Kidron Valley.

These stones here are stones that go up. They actually are these support walls,

or these ramparts, or defensive walls for the City of David. They originally belonged to the Jebusites.

Now the Jebusites lived in this area. You see this area here, it's about 12 acres. It's really not too impressive. It was very small.

And all around it, there was sort of barren waste land at the time the Jebusites had control over this area.

But it had water, this underground, it's hard to describe, but it's under the stone, subterranean water source.

It's a siphon spring that comes out and then it's channeled out through the stone that this water just keeps gurgling up from within it.

And this is what David wanted.

The Jebusites stood on these ramparts and looked down at David, who was staring up probably, thinking, "How am I gonna conquer this place?

It's so well defended." And David was down with his men. And even the Jebusites mockingly laughed down and said, "Hey, even the blind and lame could defend this place.

Hahaha, you can't take us." But David, not too long after that, maybe even hours after that, went in through a water shaft,

came up, and took the City of David. Now what does the Bible say about it? When David took the City of David,

it was called the stronghold of Zion. Zion's the key word, Z-I-O-N. Zion is the key word.

That's a common denominator in solving this problem. So Zion, it says here, is the City of David.

- [Narrator 1] 2 Samuel 5:7 equates the name the strong hold of Zion to the City of David.

Those names are interchangeable. They are the same place. Another proof of this can be found in 1 Kings 8:1,

where the Bible tells us again that the City of David is Zion.

- [Narrator 2] "Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel in Jerusalem,

that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the City of David, which is Zion.

- [Narrator 1] So now that we know that Zion is the City of David, what does the Bible say about Zion?

- [Narrator 2] "So shall he know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain." - My holy mountain.

My holy mountain is the temple. Zion is in the City of David. - [Narrator 2] "For the Lord hath chosen Zion;

he hath desired it for his habitation." - This is where the temple is, Zion, where the temple place is.

- [Narrator 2] "Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,

to the house of the God of Jacob; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."

Send the help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion. "Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Sion:

we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple." "The Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion."

The Lord dwelleth in Zion. - Eusebius, the church father, said from the fourth century, "The hill called Zion and Jerusalem, the building there,

that is to say the temple, the Holy of Holies is in Zion." Zion is really the common denominator that we should follow.

But historians and scholars today define Zion as being more of a widely used area. In fact, the identity of Israel is Zion.

But at the time when the Bible was written, Zion was the City of David.

And Zion, the Bible tells us, is the place of the temple, without question.

- [Narrator 2] "So David dwelt in the fort, and called it the city of David." - When David took over the Jebusite fortress,

God came to him and said, "David, buy the threshing floor." In other words, throughout history,

I want no discussion on who owns this land. It's gonna be bought by you, and it's gonna be a holy precinct,

and I'm gonna build my temple there. And where was the threshing floor? Inside the City of David, the Jebusite fortress.

- [Narrator 2] "And God came that day to David,

and said unto him, 'Go up, rear an altar unto the Lord in the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite."

- And so the threshing floor is a very, very important place to have in any city. It's supposed to be the most important place.

We see these photos here of threshing floors around the world. And what's really amazing to me, let's go back to the prior one, you see the hill behind it?

You see this threshing floor with the hill behind it. You see this threshing floor with the hill behind it.

We have the threshing floors positioned in very strategic places that have just enough wind, the right amount of wind, to blow away the wheat from the chaff.

Usually they're not on top of a mountain because, you know, they had enough bone-jarring labor in those days to go up and add to their their workload by going to the top of a mountain.

So it was a place that was easier to get to and had the ample amount of wind. And so that's where the threshing floor,

in fact some threshing floors even were in buildings that we find throughout the ancient world. - [Narrator 1] After purchasing the land,

Solomon began building the house of the Lord in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. #NAME?

In 2 Chronicles 3:1, it says it needs to be where the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite is.

- [Narrator 2] "Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem in Mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared unto David his father,

in the place that David had prepared in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. - So when you put all those together,

we can see Zion, Mount Moriah, the City of David, they're all one place.

- The City of David at the time was the Jebusite fortress conquered by David. And it was there on the threshing floor,

in that area in the City of David, that the temple was built according to the Bible.

- [Narrator 1] So if the Bible clearly states that Solomon's temple was constructed within the limits of the Jebusite fortress,

specifically in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite,

how can there be any dispute about the fact that Solomon's temple was built in the City of David? How did it become a city lost?

(mystical music)

- The City of David was forgotten for so many years because the temple was completely destroyed, 'cause it was abandoned. The Jews were outcast.

They were quarantined from Jerusalem. Life went on,

hundreds and hundreds of years in between of people being completely gone,

generations never even seeing where the temple or told where the the temple is. And it just got forgotten. It got lost. You know that we lost where Jamestown was?

The first settlement in America got lost.

We didn't know where it was till a few years ago when the archeologists found it. - [Narrator 1] Just as with Jamestown, as time passed,

no one knew where the City of David was. And since the stronghold of Zion was in the City of David,

Zion had also vanished.

So historians erroneously moved Zion to another spot in Jerusalem without any substantiated reason.

When you go to the Holy City today, road signs will point to the upper city,

and the signs read Zion, with an arrow pointing away from Zion's actual original location in the City of David.

- [Narrator 5] The City of David was so completely forgotten that during the Byzantine Period,

even Jerusalem's biblical name Zion shifted to the southern portion of the Western Hill,

which is called Mount Zion to this day.

- People often wonder how we could get something as significant as the temple of God,

how we could get its location wrong.

But it's important to note that it wasn't until about a hundred years ago or so that they actually discovered the true location of Mount Zion.

So if we could get the most important mountain in the Bible wrong all these years,

could it be that we would get the location of the temple wrong as well? - [Narrator 1] For almost 2,000 years,

Zion and the City of David have been buried and forgotten. "The southern part was made into a quarry by Hadrian,

who wanted the city so mangled that it would be forever dismissed from memory." In the days of King Ahaz,

the prophet Micah foretold of this destruction in about 730 BC.

This prophecy specifically said that Zion would be plowed like a field and that it would be completely lost.

Micah's prophecy was certainly not popular with the political leaders and priests of his day.

However, the specifics of this prophecy are truly incredible because his words were completely fulfilled almost 800 years later.

- [Narrator 2] "Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps,

and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest."

- This is a very clear prophecy that it was gonna be plowed like a field, and that is exactly what history records happening.

So we see in the Book of Micah that a time was gonna come where Jerusalem was gonna look as though nothing had been there. It would be heaps and a forest.

Some say that was in 70 AD, others think it may have been in 132 AD,

when there was another famous revolt known as the Bar-Kokhba Revolt.

And what's interesting about that, the Romans were so tired of all these rebellions by the Jews, who kept wanting to rebuild that temple,

he decided we need to eliminate the memory of Jerusalem from there. And so they literally went and plowed Mount Zion.

I mean, it was down to the dirt.

He ended up building a temple to Jupiter in that spot where the temple once stood.

This was his way of trying to remove the remembrance so the Jews wouldn't keep trying to take that spot and build a temple there.

And then eventually what he did is he ended up, they changed the name of that land to Palestine. If you look at these walls,

it's obvious it's never happened here. These walls, they go back, some of them, to before the time of Christ,

still stacked one upon another. So there's no way this area ever could have been plowed, could have become a forest.

There's absolutely no evidence of that anywhere in this Temple Mount area. - Nobody's plowing up there.

But it fulfilled the prophecy here, in the City of David, plowed like a field. - They took it down to the very foundations, to the very soil.

It said it would become heaps. So there's no doubt, in 2,000 years, a landscape can change a lot.

But when a purposeful effort was taken to change the layout,

to hide what was there, there's no reason to doubt that the landscape looked quite a bit different than it does today.

- Look at this oval here that you see. That oval, that is where the City of David is. Up above, where that yellow out there,

that is where the Temple Mount is. Do you see the fields that are being plowed there? You see those terraces?

You can see almost the farmers out there plowing that. There's no plowed fields up above up on the Temple Mount.

But here in the City of David, we have the fulfillment of Micah's prophecy. This photo here is the most intriguing of the photos to me,

and I'll tell you why.

This is speaking to us from history that we don't have today when we look at Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is just a jumble of buildings in a lot of respects. But through the lens of this photographer,

he's opened up a world that really speaks volumes of Bible history.

This fulfills the prophet's view of where the temple would be. This does not. (dramatic music)

- [Narrator 1] The search for the true location of the biblical City of David was one of the stated objectives of the Palestinian Exploration Fund since its establishment in 1865.

Archeological exploration for the City of David began in 1867 by Master Freemason Charles Warren,

whom the Palestinian Exploration Fund sent to search for the Ark of the Covenant.

During his exploration, he made some remarkable discoveries,

such as ancient fortifications and a vertical shaft that he believed Joab used to take over the Jebusite fortress.

Today it's known as Warren's Shaft,

descending from the slanted tunnel to an apparent water source dating to the time of David.

- In 1880, an inscription was found by some boys that changed history forever.

- [Narrator 1] It would be one of the most important finds ever made in Israel and permanently mark where the ancient City of David was located.

- The Siloam inscription was discovered by one or two boys, Jewish boys,

who went to take a swim at the Pool of Siloam at the southern end of the City of David.

It was fed by water coming out from the rock, from an opening in the rock. And they were curious, and they went in.

- [Bob] Pretty brave little lads 'cause they had to go quite a bit in in this dark maw of a cave filled with water, running water.

- And after six or seven meters, that is 18, 20 feet, one of them saw on the wall an inscription,

something inscribed. They didn't know what it is or to decipher it. And they went to the teacher,

a German working as a missionary in Jerusalem by the name Conrad Schick. - [Conrad] "One of my pupils,

when climbing down the southern side of it,

stumbled over the broken bits of rock and fell into the water. On rising to the surface,

he discovered some marks like letters on the wall of rock.

I set off with the necessary things to examine his discovery." - The inscription talks about,

this is the place the Hezekiah's men met while they were building the tunnels. They came from two different directions, and they connected right at this part.

It was a memorial stone showing where they came and met, creating this long tunnel. #NAME?

So it commemorates the moment the last three cubits to be cut, which is about a meter and a half, five feet.

- And then the final blow of the ax, they saw the water coming. And it flowed from the source to the pool.

And this was such an exciting moment that it had to be documented. - And this tunnel works until today.

You were in the water, where you. So 2,700 years, maybe a little more,

of a project which still works.

- [Narrator 2] "And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib was come, and that he was purposed to fight against Jerusalem.

He took counsel with his princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the fountains which were without the city: and they did help him.

So there was gathered much people together, who stopped all the fountains, and the brook that ran through the midst of the land, saying, 'Why should the kings of Assyria come,

and find much water?" "Hezekiah also stopped the upper watercourse of Gihon,

and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David. And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah,

and all his might, and how he made a pool, and a conduit, and brought water into the city,

are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?"

- And sure enough, right down there is where they found what's known as Hezekiah's Tunnels, right there in the City of David.

It was that discovery that confirmed that this area was the City of David. - (indistinct) in the 1880s, everybody should have said,

Here's where the temple is. We found Hezekiah's Tunnel. We found the Gihon Springs. But they didn't. They didn't do a thing. Why?

Because tradition was poured over it and they don't wanna change. Tradition's such a strong thing. Tradition's mentioned 14 times in the Bible,

and it's all negative, it's all negative. We shouldn't follow tradition, so we should follow the word of God.

- [Narrator 1] The discovery of the Siloam inscription in Hezekiah's Tunnel was a significant event because it confirmed the biblical narrative and provided the exact location of the City of David.

(lighthearted music)

Israeli archeologists Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron excavated in the City of David from 1995 to 2012.

Their work led to some of the most significant archeological discoveries ever made in Jerusalem.

Their excavations revealed that the entrance to the Gihon Spring was heavily fortified with a massive tower.

They also uncovered the remains of the Pool of Siloam. However, in 2010, Eli Shukron made a very unusual discovery.

He found an ancient structure only a few feet from the Gihon Spring,

which is perhaps the greatest discovery ever found in Israel. - Here's my good friend Eli Shukron,

who was the Director of Archeology in the City of David for many, many years. He spent a large portion of his life in the dark here,

digging away day by day, coming to work in the morning, digging all day, taking out tons and tons of debris. When I first met Eli Shukron, I said,

Hey, I think there should be something underground here. I think this is the place where Solomon's Temple was. Of course he didn't think that was true.

He said, "Well, now that you said it, there's something that's amazing that I wanna show you."

And he took me down this little weedy path here and opened up this door. The hinges just squeaked with rusty protest,

and we went inside, and it was dark with cobwebs and old sandbags, and it was an archeological site that was live.

- [Narrator 1] This ancient structure is known by a few informal names, such as the Matzevah Temple, Temple Zero,

or Melchizedek's Temple. It is believed to date back to the time of Abraham, even before the City of David was constructed.

Although rarely mentioned and closed off to the public,

the site has significant implications when considering all the facts.

In 1909, Montagu Parker discovered the northernmost room, but he never uncovered the rest of the site.

Shukron continued excavations to the south and found additional rooms all quarried in the bedrock.

- This area was excavated in 2010. And we came, and every two meter, every six feet, we did excavation.

We did all the construction. So we moved palm by palm by palm by palm. And what we found, we found very, very, very important area.

(lighthearted music) - [Narrator 1] The site is oriented towards the east,

which is a common characteristic of other Judean temples,

and faces the same direction in which the tabernacle and the first temple faced.

It features a staircase that leads to a flat surface carved into the bedrock.

Several small rooms are aligned next to one another on the surface. These rooms were designated for animal sacrifice,

grain and olive pressing, an altar, and a stone monument known as a matzevah. - It took him 20 years, I think,

of just every day like a mole going down on the ground and working down there, countless untold hours of misery digging all that dirt out.

But what he's uncovered is amazing finds. He's truly a great guy and a good friend of mine. Do we agree on all this?

No. - We are in the City of David now above the Gihon Spring. We're in the temple that found in 2010.

And this very, very important temple because this is the beginning of worshiping God in Jerusalem, in the City of David. Here where we are, go back to the time of Melchizedek,

before 3,700, 3,800 years ago.

- [Narrator 1] It is truly remarkable to discover a site that has been so well preserved.

According to Eli Shukron, the altar and everything else was excavated exactly as we see it today.

- You can see the line of the stone. This is the wall. But all what we have inside to the wall, between the rock and the wall,

you can see all the stone covering all the air. It was covering like that. Someone buried this place. - [Narrator 1] When the site was buried,

artifacts were left behind, indicating when it was in use and when it was covered up. - What's happening in that cave,

we found a lot of ceramic, a lot of pottery. Why? Because before they cover, before they burry it,

they clean all that room and they put everything inside.

And what we found, we found here pottery go back to the Middle Bronze Period. And the layer, the pottery,

after, before two years ago, they did also carbon-14 dating. And then they found that the layer,

they say that this go back to the Middle Bronze Period. Also, they prove it by carbon-14 dating. So take the carbon-14 dating, take the pottery,

all together, take the finding that we found in here,

and then we understand that we are in very, very important place.

And all that go back to the Bible and what the Bible tell us. And then we start to understand that the Bible talk about, well, what we have here?

We have the pillar, the house of God. And what is the pillar? If you're reading Genesis 28:22, the pillar, the house of God.

- [Narrator 2] "And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house."

- So that stone that says someone set it up as a pillar and the stone around it, this is what the Bible said the house of God.

So this is the most important place in this temple.

- [Narrator 1] Eli Shukron says that this pillar is just like the one that is described in Genesis 28,

when Jacob had a dream of a ladder reaching up to heaven in Bethel. - [Narrator 2] "And Jacob awaked out of his sleep,

and he said, 'Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.' And he was afraid, and said, 'How dreadful is this place.

This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.'

And Jacob rose up early in the morning and took the stone that he had put for his pillows and set it up for a pillar,

and poured oil upon the top of it."

- [Narrator 1] Eli Shukron believes that Melchizedek set this stone up in Jerusalem, just like Jacob did in Bethel.

- So what is (indistinct). What you doing to the house of God? You anoint it with the olive oil. Where are you producing that olive oil?

Here in the place. And you can see that the olive press was, you take the olive, you smashing the olive, you put the olive in the sack, and then you put the sack on the top of the peat,

and then you get the branch of the wood inside of the hole,

and then with the weight, and then you pressing then what we call a cold press, and then you have around fifth, between 10 to 20% olive oil.

And jumping to the top, you collect it. Olive oil, you must use it immediately. You cannot wait with olive oil.

- [Narrator 1] Olive oil played a significant role in the tabernacle and the temple.

It was considered sacred and used as holy anointing oil to sanctify priests, the tabernacle,

and its holy furnishings.

Additionally, fresh olive oil was used for lighting lamps inside the temple, symbolizing God's presence that would light up the world.

It only makes sense that this temple would indeed have an olive press.

Next to the olive press, Shukron discovered a storage room with many broken jars. #NAME?

And this room was covered with the plaster. Let's go to that. - [Interviewer] Plaster here, yeah. - You see the plaster?

So we're talking about room, that we have a jar in that room, and for what purpose do we have that jar with olive oil?

Before you sacrifice the animal, you need to skin the animal. How you skin the animal? By hanging the animal.

For hanging the animal, what we need to build? Tripod. On that tripod, they hang the animal,

skin the animal, prepare the animal before they put them on the altar. But this is the place where they hang the animal.

Here we can see a hole when they tie in the baby goats, baby sheep before they put them on the tripod. And this is where they tie them,

baby goats, baby sheep here, and see the hole here in this corner.

And here we can see a place where you're collecting the blood. And here we can see the cave that we already talked about,

the hole for the animal. And then you can see some hole there. This is for the grain of the seed of the wheat, to make bread.

- [Narrator 1] Bread is another essential requirement for the tabernacle and the temple. It was to be present continually. #NAME?

On that platform, they build an altar made by stone and cutting stone. And here we can see the channel.

This channel collecting all the blood that came from the altar and then you collect it here, okay,

by some bowl or something that you're collecting that kind of blood that came from the altar. And this is fantastic.

You hang the animal, you skin the animal, you sacrifice the animal here, you collecting the blood here, while you are very close to the spring to the water.

(indistinct) and where you are? In the City of David.

- I don't think it's a coincidence that they found evidence of a temple and where they did sacrifices, sure enough, right here in the City of David.

- And this fantastic.

This fantastic finding because it take us to the beginning of worshiping God. - This is why Ellie calls this Temple Zero,

because the first temple that we know about is Solomon's temple. The second temple we know about is really,

well, Zerubbabel but perfected by Herod. So maybe this was the temple before.

In fact, where was Solomon coronated king? - [Narrator 2] "So Zadok the priest brought him to Gihon.

And took an horn of oil out of the tabernacle, and anointed Solomon."

- Is it possible that the temple that he discovered is where Solomon was coronated? It's right there at Gihon.

- [Narrator 2] "And they blew the trumpet; and all the people said, 'God save King Solomon.'"

- [Narrator 1] Nearly a thousand years before Solomon was anointed king, in Genesis 14,

there is a passage that talks about a mysterious figure named Melchizedek.

According to the Bible, Melchizedek was the priest of the most high God and the king of Salem,

which later became Jebus and now known as Jerusalem.

- [Narrator 2] "And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him, at the Valley of Shaveh,

which is the king's dale. And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said,

'Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth. And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand.'

And he gave them tithes of all." - [Narrator 1] According to the Bible,

Melchizedek blessed Abraham and God for the victory over Chedorlaomer.

In return, Abraham gave him a tithe of all the spoils he had received from the battle. This event took place in the Valley of Shaveh,

which is also known as the King's Dale, or Kings Valley.

Scholars have suggested that this location is believed to be the Kidron Valley, which runs adjacent to the mysterious Temple Zero.

The only other mention of the King's Dale is in 2 Samuel 18, where Absalom erected a pillar.

- [Narrator 2] "Absalom reared up for himself a pillar,

which is in the king's dale, and he called the pillar after his own name, Absalom's place." - [Narrator 1] Today, in the Kidron Valley,

next to Temple Zero stands a pillar known as Absalom's Pillar. According to Josephus, Benjamin of Tudela,

and other historians, this pillar was built as a monument to Absalom.

However, recent studies date the structure to the 1st Century AD.

Regardless, this monument is traditionally associated with Absalom due to its location in the King's Valley.

There is also a possibility that the present pillar is a reconstruction of a previously damaged one.

Either way, the reference to Melchizedek's meeting Abraham in the same valley in Genesis 14 raises the question of whether Temple Zero was the temple where Melchizedek was the priest.

Melchizedek is undoubtedly one of the most enigmatic characters in scripture. Mentioned in only three books of the Bible,

little is known about him, except that he was a priest and king, a unique combination shared only by Jesus.

His name means king of righteousness. And according to Hebrews 7:3, he had no parents or bloodline.

- [Narrator 2] "Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God,

abideth a priest continually." - [Narrator 1] From these passages,

many proposed that Melchizedek was a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ. Notice how in Genesis 14,

we see Melchizedek offering Abraham bread and wine after his victory, which is a perfect representation of communion.

The bread symbolizes the body of Christ, while the wine represents his blood.

Others argue that Melchizedek was a man simply a type of Christ.

Regardless, this fascinating event between Melchizedek and Abraham took place in Salem,

in the Valley of Shaveh, feet away from a temple that was discovered in 2010 by Eli Shukron.

- [Narrator 2] "In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling place in Zion."

(rhythmic music)

- [Narrator 1] Water is the most essential part of any civilization. People have to have water, so they'll build where the water is located.

And the only water in Jerusalem is in the City of David at the Gihon Spring. And this is where Jerusalem began. #NAME?

It was founded and later made into the temple city and the capital of the house of David. We are in the City of David.

This is the beginning of Jerusalem. It started here where we are. And when talking about the beginning of Jerusalem,

by defining here, everything started here, around the Gihon Spring. The people came here because of the water.

People came here because this place where we are standing now.

- Where it not there, let's say if that spring would have emanated in another place in modern Jerusalem,

I can imagine that the entire story would've started there.

Water is our life and it it dictates the place where people started their villages,

which turned later into cities, et cetera.

- [Narrator 1] When attempting to determine the location of the tabernacle, the Gihon Spring plays an important role.

In 1 Kings 1, Solomon was brought to the Gihon Spring, to the very spot where the priest entered the tabernacle.

It is also where the Ark of the Covenant was held. - [Narrator 2] "So Zadok the priest went down, and caused Solomon to ride upon King David's mule,

and brought him to Gihon.

And Zadok the priest took an horn of oil out of the tabernacle, and anointed Solomon." - People read that, I go, "Did you hear what that just said?"

The tabernacle's in the City of David.

He took a horn of oil from the tabernacle and anointed Solomon. The only place that could be is in the City of David. It's my conjecture, and only my conjecture,

but it makes, I think, logical sense that if David brought the ark to the area of the Gihon Springs,

and he had the ark there and the tabernacle there,

that this is the holy precinct in which the future temples would be built, laminated on top of one another because it's a holy place,

that's a holy pin in the ground,

the surveyors pin in the ground saying this is the place where I want the temple. I wanted it when it was in a tent with David. I want it when it comes to Solomon.

I want it when it comes to Zerubbabel. I want it when it comes to Herod.

- [Narrator 1] It is generally accepted that all temples were constructed in the same exact location as one another.

And it makes sense that they were built in the only spot where Jerusalem gets its water. #NAME?

That means that it is not fed by a local water-saturated stone layer

but by underground crevice or fracture which reaches its place from an unknown direction,

probably several kilometers north of the city. #NAME?

The Romans couldn't put so much as a toe into the Gihon Springs because it was holy water. So what they do, they brought in water from South Bethlehem.

They piped it in through.

And you can still see these rotted out pipes where the water came and that fed the Romans. And so scholars will say to me, "

Bob, there's 10,000, 20,000 acre cisterns underneath the Temple Mount. 1:22:131 hour, 22 minutes, 13 seconds They had plenty of water to wash themselves for the priestly duties in the temple. No. They had to have running water. It could be stagnant water with moss, and bugs,"

and debris in it, and waste, and whatnot. It had to have been running water.

- [Narrator 1] Running water is vital to understanding the true location of Solomon and Herod's temple.

The area near the Dome of the Rock has a concentration of 36 or 37 cisterns, but it has no running water.

It needed so many cisterns because it was a Roman fortress. Having water is a basic necessity in a Roman fortress.

Every fortress needs and stores water for everyday use or in case of a siege. Soldiers need water for many reasons,

especially when occupying a territory.

So the Romans built an aqueduct from Bethlehem to the Temple Mount because they couldn't use the temple's holy water,

which was only 600 feet away in the Gihon Spring.

- You had to build the temple in a place where it received the fresh water.

The only place that could be is in the City of David over the Gihon Springs.

- [Narrator 1] In 2014, David Amit and Shimon Gibson published an article about ancient aqueducts bringing water to Jerusalem.

They found no evidence of any aqueducts built between Bethlehem and Jerusalem before 140 BC.

So if there is no evidence of any aqueduct on the Temple Mount during the First Temple period,

where did they get their water for Solomon's temple?

- For the priest to wash themselves before their priestly duties within the temple, it had to have been living water,

running water, spring water.

Thus, the Gihon Springs would be considered to be holy water. Before the priests would go into the temple, whether it be Solomon's temple or Herod's temple,

they needed to be bathed in spring water.

The only spring water in all of Jerusalem is right here in the Gihon Springs. There's absolutely no spring water on the Temple Mount.

There's no way that they would've washed themselves in the Gihon Springs and then walked a quarter mile to half a mile to the Temple Mount before they were allowed to go into the temple precincts,

considered to be purified.

Not only was water needed to wash the priest in their priestly duties,

but we read in scripture sometimes they have over a hundred thousand animals being killed at a time.

- [Narrator 1] We read in 1 Kings 8 that when Solomon dedicated the temple,

he sacrificed 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep. - And to get rid of the blood,

you know, that amount of blood in there would putrefy and cause disease like we can't even imagine.

You needed a means of getting rid of the blood.

And that would've been done by the living water that we have in Hezekiah's Tunnel today. The Gihon Springs would've washed that away. Up on the Temple Mount,

slaughtering that amount of animals, no way they could have washed away the blood. That's the key.

That's the silver nail in all this is that they needed to have running, living water. And you don't have that on the Temple Mount,

but you have that in the City of David,

which is a requirement for temple worship and for the priest to wash themselves. If we go back to the time of David,

we're talking 3,000 years ago, you need to have water for the place of the temple. The Bible talks about water at the temple.

Hecataeus talks about it, an ancient historian, Tacitus, the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Many sources talk about water coming up and welling up from within the temple.

- It is a unique type of spring under pressure.

An analogy is that it is like Old Faithful at Yellowstone Park without the heat.

It fills up, then there's enough pressure to push the water up, up to the top of the temple.

And I have 10 historical non-biblical sources that say there was a flowing spring inside the temple.

- [Narrator 1] When we look at the account of Aristeas,

a Jew from Egypt who visited Jerusalem about 50 years after Alexander the Great, he gave a detailed description of the temple.

And we should be aware of what he stated as an observer. - [Narrator 6] "There is an inexhaustible supply of water,

because an abundant natural spring gushes up from within the temple." - A natural spring gushing up. You'll see that spring.

Let's go down and take the camera and we'll go down and see it. The water's still running today. The Roman historian Tacitus,

roughly 400 years after Aristeas recorded that the temple had a natural spring of water that welled from its interior.

- [Narrator 7] "It contained an inexhaustible spring." - Tacitus says there was water inside the temple,

in a fountain.

So all these things put together really help contribute to the location of the temple.

- [Narrator 1] Jewish scholars have long believed in the existence of a fountain inside the temple.

The Jewish encyclopedia acknowledges this by stating that, "Another phenomenon was the water supply.

A spring rising below the Holy of Holies, it became an overflowing brook." The Babylonian Talmud,

compiled around 300 AD from earlier accounts, describes water flowing from beneath the temple.

R. Phinehas said...

- [R. Phinehas] "The spring that issues from the Holy of Holies." - [Narrator] R. Eliezer b. Jacob said...

- [R. Eliezer] "Hence, go forth the waters which will bubble forth from under the threshold of the sanctuary." #NAME?

This text, called the Temple Scroll,

offers valuable insights into the temple and was written before its destruction in 70 AD.

The papyrus reads...

- [Narrator 8] "You shall make a channel all around the laver within the building. The channel runs from the building of the Laver to a shaft,

goes down and disappears in the middle of the earth so that the water flows and runs through it and is lost in the middle of the earth

and no one should touch it because it is mixed with the blood of the holocaust.

- [Narrator 1] Zev Vilnay is famous Israeli geographer,

author, and lecturer who wrote the book "Legends of Jerusalem." In this book, he cited a story from Hebrew writings,

saying...

- [Zev] At that time, a great stream shall flow forth from the holy temple, and its name is Gihon.

- [Narrator 1] Scripture makes numerous references that the temple in Jerusalem was a physical representation on Earth of God's official residence in heaven.

We read in the Bible that God has spring waters in his heavenly residence. For example, in Revelation, we read...

- [Narrator 2] "And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem. And he shewed me a pure river of water of life,

clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb." "And let him that heareth say, 'Come.'

And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will let him take the water of life freely."

- [Narrator 1] "The symbolism on earth of the heavenly House of God would not be complete without spring waters being within the earthly Temple."

The description of the river in God's house in heaven and the expectation that a similar water feature must exist in the earthly temple

provides clear evidence that God intended for the temple to be built with access to spring water.

Of the temple in Jerusalem, the psalmist states... - [Narrator 2] "All my springs are in thee.

They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house;

and thou shall make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. For with thee is the fountain of life."

- [Narrator 1] Even as far back as Moses and the time of the tabernacle in the wilderness,

spring water was essential in the purification ceremony for priests. - Going as far back as Moses at Mount Sinai,

when they had the Ark of the Covenant and the tabernacle there, they needed water. What did they do? They didn't use any well water. They used running water from a rock.

Moses struck the water and water gushed out.

We know of the water source traveling with them in the wilderness.

And so there's always been a requirement for them to have running water for them to wash themselves for the priests. So it's gotta be running water.

And that's what you have in the Gihon Springs and not on the Temple Mount. - [Narrator 1] Everywhere the tabernacle stopped,

there was water.

The water was not only for the people to drink but also for the purification of the priests.

When we look at the future temple in Ezekiel 47,

it talks about water coming forth from the holy place and flowing out the right side of the altar and into the Dead Sea to make those waters clean and fresh.

- [Narrator 2] "Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house; and, behold,

waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward,

and the waters came down from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar. Then he said unto me,

'These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea,

the waters shall be healed." "A fountain shall come forth out of the house of the Lord."

In that day, there shall be a fountain open to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Living water shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toured the hinder sea.

- [Narrator 1] These passages demonstrate for us how spring waters were connected to God's dwelling places, both the tabernacle and later the temples.

- You have to have running water, and it has to come up within the temple. There is no water up on the Temple Mount, the traditional Temple Mount.

It's dry, parched piece of stone up there.

And if that's the case, why in the world are people looking up on the Temple Mount for the place of the temple? You needed to have water.

That's imperative. It's compulsory that we have water in the temple, and there is no water up on the Temple Mount.

None. (mystical music) Well, when Paul was speaking to the Bereans,

he called them noble. And he said, "Hey, don't believe what I say." I'm asking you as the audience today, don't believe anything I say.

But check it against scripture. Then believe what I say.

Scripture will tell you if what I'm saying is right or it's wrong.

In Isaiah 5:20, it says people will will see what right is wrong, and wrong is right, that light is dark, and dark is light.

They'll see that sweet is sour, and sour is sweet. They won't see the truth. We should be like the Bereans,

noble in our pursuit of truth.

And the only way to find out what truth is is use the final mediator in all this, which is the word of God.

- [Narrator 2] "Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces;

that ye may tell it to the generation following." - Psalm 48 gives us a really strong pronouncement by God,

and it's a really strong admonition. We should teach following generations where the temple was, where Zion was, where the bulwarks are,

where the palaces are, where the boundaries are. The Bible is very, very strong about telling, and people haven't done that. They haven't studied where these things were.

When I read this verse,

it really propelled me on this search to try and find the true location of the temple, to find the boundary markers.

But a lot of people are gonna have a hard time accepting it because tradition is like cement being poured over them. And in time, it's just calcified and it's hardened,

and nothing will crack that. Even the word of God won't even crack it for them. Even all this evidence won't crack it for them.

But I believe we need to follow where the Bible says because the Bible's prophetically, contextually, and historically accurate. The Bible is God's revelation of himself to man.

The Bible is the supreme standard by which we should live and the supreme standard if you wanna use it to find things lost in Bible history.

And that's what I do.

I use the Bible for the supreme standard in my life and in my research for lost locations.

- While the thought of rebuilding a temple is exciting for a lot of people,

in reality it's something that we as Christians should be against.

We know from the Bible that when Jesus died on the cross and he said it is finished, the veil of the temple was rent in twain.

Jesus was done with the things of the temple. They are no longer needed.

They were never able to cleanse sins with the sacrifices of animals according to the Book of Hebrews.

And Jesus Christ came and replaced all those things when he died on the cross. And so the truth is, in the Book of Acts,

what we see are the Jews rejecting Jesus Christ. They're rebelling against the law of Moses.

Based on the preachings we see of Paul, and of Stephen, and of Peter,

they were calling on the Jews to accept Jesus Christ and follow that prophet that the Lord said he would raise up like unto Moses.

And when they rejected Jesus Christ and remained attached to the temple, that was rebellion against God.

And they were warned about these things in the Book of Hebrews and in the preaching that we see in the Book of Acts. And as a result of their rebellion,

eventually God gave them 40 years.

But eventually, God brought judgment on Jerusalem and he had the temple destroyed because he didn't want them going back to those things.

He wanted them coming to Jesus Christ.

- [Narrator 2] "But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle,

not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building. Neither by the blood of goats and calves,

but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

For the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:

how much more shall the blood of Christ,

who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"

- [Narrator 1] Animal sacrifices were once deemed necessary until the perfect and final sacrifice was made.

This sacrifice was made by Jesus Christ, who offered himself a ransom for all.

He was the ultimate sacrifice. - "He was wounded for our transgressions,

he was bruised for our inequities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

- [Narrator 1] When Jesus died in our place, he "bare our sins in his own body on the tree."

His blood purifies and cleanses us from all of our sins.

- [Narrator 2] "We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."

- [Narrator 1] The things of the temple were meant to be temporary.

They were intended to remind Israel of their sinful condition and their need for a cleansing savior.

These practices were designed to lead them towards Jesus Christ and help them recognize him as the Messiah who would be the final sacrifice for their sins.

- [Narrator 2] "For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things,

can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect."

For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

- [Narrator 1] This is the essence of the entire new covenant as the law could never save us on its own.

The sacrifice of Jesus Christ marked the end of all sacrifices. - [Narrator 2] "Behold the lamb of God,

which taketh away the sin of the world." - [Narrator 1] Jesus Christ is the lamb of God.

His sacrifice on the cross was the final and perfect sacrifice that all sacrifices of the Bible pointed to and represented.

It is through his death, burial, and resurrection that we can have eternal life if we believe in him.

This is why the temple was completely destroyed in 70 AD.

There is no more need for the sacrificial system or the temple. We as believers are now considered the temple of God.

- The subject of the temple location is something that's a fascinating subject for many reasons.

But I think one of the reasons Christians are interested in this is because we believe according to Bible prophecy that another temple is going to be built someday.

- [Narrator 2] "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first,

and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God,

shewing himself that he is God."

- And while a lot of people get excited about the thought of the rebuilding of a temple,

the truth is it's actually a bad thing because according to Bible prophecy,

it's gonna be the antichrist or the beast that causes the temple to be rebuilt. And I believe when he does this,

this will be a rebellion against God. God took those things away. And for 2,000 years, in rebellion, they've been trying to bring them back.

And God doesn't want them brought back.

But we believe one day the world will unite in their rebellion with the Jews against Jesus Christ and will rebuild a temple that will not be a holy temple.

It will not be the temple of God. It will be the temple of the beast. And when that happens,

we believe it's during that time of great tribulation that God is going to pour his wrath out on this earth.

It will be a united rejection and rebellion against Jesus Christ.

- Will people ever accept the fact that the City of David is the place of the temple? A lot of people won't no matter what you say.

But a lot of the young people I'm talking to in Jerusalem are saying, "Pretty cool." I show them the evidence, and they go, "Yes." A lot of tour guides come up to me and say,

I can't say this to my groups, but you're right. The temple has to be in the City of David.

I have scholars from universities coming up to me and saying, and I'm having even contrarians come up to me and say, "Well, you make a good case there.

You have to have running water."

So what's gonna happen in the future is gonna be very exciting because once the Jews figure out the correct location of the temple is in the City of David,

and they own that land, they could build a temple.

- [Narrator 1] The future holds the mystery of where the third temple will be built,

whether it will be on its traditional site or in the City of David. But with the passage of time,

the answer will surely be unveiled as the end of the world draws nearer. - If we're correct on this,

it has huge implications prophetically to when the antichrist is gonna return, when the temple's gonna be rebuilt. To me, it's fascinating.

To me, I'm seeing the Bible come to life in ways I've never dreamt possible.

And when I have done research on where the temple's located and every page I've turned, it points like a flaming arrow to the City of David,

it gets me pretty excited. Why is God allowing this to come to the forefront now? Why didn't it become real popular a hundred years ago,

because the evidence has been there? I can only conject that right now,

we're in very interesting times and that the Bible is literally coming to life right before our eyes.

(mystical music) (rhythmic music)

(lighthearted music)

- Hi, I'm Pastor Tommy McMurtry from Liberty Baptist Church in Rock Falls, Illinois.

And I'm privileged to be standing here today on the Mount of Olives in the city of Jerusalem. This is an amazing city with a lot of great history.

But the most important event in all of history that I wanna talk about happened here 2,000 years ago,

where Jesus Christ came and he made a way to heaven for fallen man.

And I wanna tell you right now how you can know 100% for sure that you're on your way to heaven when you die.

Now, the Bible does tell us about some bad news, and that is in Romans 3:23. "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."

It also says in Romans chapter three, "As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one."

Man is sinful, and we have all transgressed God's holy law. And God being the holy God that he is,

he demands payment for sin. And there is a penalty for sin, the Bible tells us. In Romans 6:23, it says, "For the wages of sin is death."

That is a just payment and that is what we owe. And when the Bible talks about death, it's not just talking about a physical death,

it's talking about a spiritual death. The Bible says in Revelation, "And death and hell were cast in the lake of fire,

which is the second death."

And you and I, we deserve to die and go to hell because of our sins. But thankfully, the Bible also tells us in John 3:16,

it says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son,

that whosoever believed in him should not perish but have everlasting life." God sent his perfect, righteous son Jesus,

who lived a completely sinless life, 'cause he was born of a virgin, he was the son of God, and Jesus Christ died on the cross.

Now, why did he die on the cross? 'Cause the wages of sin is death, and that payment had to be made by a righteous man.

It couldn't be made by us. And if we die, we'd stay dead for all eternity. But the Bible tells us that three days later,

Jesus rose again from the dead. Now while he came and he paid that great price, what does he ask of us?

Well, as I said in Romans 6:23, it says, "For the wages of sin is death,

but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

God sent Jesus as a gift to mankind.

And salvation, it's not something that we can earn through any good works.

It's not something we could earn through any religious rituals. The Bible teaches that the way to salvation, it's through faith.

The Bible says without faith, it's impossible to please him. We can't please him with our works, but we can please him with our faith.

And the word of God tells us that God sent Jesus to pay for the sins of mankind. And he did it.

And he died, he was buried, he rose again. And the Bible tells us that if we will believe on him, he will give us salvation.

We will be imputed the righteousness of Christ or credited with Christ's righteousness instead of our own.

That's good news, ladies and gentlemen. In fact, that's our only hope if salvation is free. We can't earn it.

And, you know, our only hope is if salvation is eternal. And the Bible teaches us that salvation is eternal.

The area behind me, it's known as the Temple Mount area.

And somewhere in this area, there used to be a temple where they offered sacrifices for sins.

But the Bible teaches that the blood of bulls and goats couldn't take away sins.

But Jesus Christ, being a better high priest and a better sacrifice, he came and he made a one time payment for sins.

And the Bible tells us in the Book of Hebrews that he is able to save them to the uttermost that come to him. He saves us and he saves us forever.

Once you're saved, you can never lose your salvation, because our salvation, it's not about what we do, it's about what Jesus Christ already did.

And so in order to receive it, all you must do is believe,

and then you can call on him and ask him for that free gift of salvation. The Bible tells us in Romans 10:13,

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. It's that simple.

Now the question is, do you believe it or do you not believe it? And if you do believe it, just in the best way you know how,

just acknowledge that you're a sinful person to God. Ask him to forgive you and give you salvation. And I promise you he'll do that.

Romans 10:9 says, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead,

thou shalt be saved." For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made known unto salvation."

So I hope you'll do that right now. I hope you'll put your faith and trust completely in him. Don't trust in your works. Don't trust in anything you do.

Trust in what Jesus Christ did for you here 2,000 years ago. He died on the cross and paid for your sins.

He loves you and he wants to give you eternal life completely free, and he'll never take it back. Thank God for that precious gift.

And thank you so much for watching. I hope this was a help to you. If you believe that message you just heard,

you can call on the Lord right now to receive the gift of eternal life. Right now, if you'll pray, believing in your heart, you will be saved.

Just pray, dear Lord Jesus, I know I'm a sinner and I deserve to pay the penalty for my own sins,

but I don't wanna go to hell when I die. I wanna be with you in heaven. I believe you died on the cross and rose again for me.

Please forgive my sins and come into my heart. I accept your gift of salvation.

I believe in you and trust in you alone as my savior to take me to heaven when I die. Thank you, God, for your love.

Amen. (dramatic music)

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