Southern Steps of Temple Mount, Jerusalem
“Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them.” John 8:2
To sit on the broad monumental steps of the staircase leading up to Temple Mount from the south is to experience being in a place where Jesus and his disciples walked many times as they came to the temple to worship and teach. The bright sun, with a quality unique to Jerusalem, in contrast to the cold stone steps (many hewn directly from the bedrock of Mount Moriah) give a physical sensation of weight to our salvation history. It’s an amazing place to sit and envision the Biblical era pilgrims coming up from the pool of Siloam in the City of David to worship and offer sacrifices at the Temple. And to envision Jesus, the ultimate sacrifice for sin, teaching and foretelling his death and resurrection. We long to go back to this place and experience it again!
The entrance to the Ophel and to the southern steps of Temple Mount are through the Davidson Archeological park at the southern end of the Western Wall plaza. The steps were built in the time of Herod the Great’s enlargement of the Temple Mount platform. The steps have varying narrow and deep treads to slow the pilgrim, encouraging prayer and contemplation as they approached the temple. Rabbis and teachers could use this large broad area to address groups of people and thus the name “Teaching Steps”. Nearby are ritual mikveh pools for purification before entering the temple area. Once the top of the steps were reached, there were two sets of gates onto Temple Mount, the west double gate and the east triple gate. They became known as the Huldah gates.
Both sets of gates originally led to underground vaulted ramps that led out onto the temple platform. They were walled up in the Middle Ages. A tower was built up against the southern wall in medieval times and disrupts the remains of the arch that was the double gate. The Al-Aqsa Mosque has altered the architecture of the area inside the gates. The triple gate was explored by Charles Warren in the 1860’s. He found a maze of passages and open areas that are now incorporated into the mosques under Temple Mount.
Southern wall “teaching steps” leading up to Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Jesus and his disciples would have walked these steps many times when going to the temple to worship and teach.
