Entering the Temple Mount through the Mugrabi Gate, proceeding eastward along the southern side of the Mount, various artifacts can be seen on display.
While some of these artifacts date to later historical periods, a number of these items are remnants from the Second Temple period. Some of the capitals (a capital is the archaeological term for the topmost portion of a column) pictured here are actually from the Second Temple. Sources of Jewish tradition and history record that these capitals were covered with an overlay of gold.
The orange-tinted stain on the stone is ostensibly all that is left, the effect of the elements on the gold over the millennium. However a closer examination of several of these capitals reveals a fascinating detail: remnants of bright gold that still remain on the capitals! Indeed, this is the legacy of "Jerusalem of Gold," and while the Islamic elements that temporarily hold sway over the Temple Mount deny that the Holy Temple even existed, and deny the Jewish connection to this holy site... the evidence of the past points brightly to the future.
Photographs by Rabbi Chaim Richman.
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