Jerusalem as Jesus saw it

This item appears on page 49 of the December 2009 issue.
In this scale model, what is known as the Wailing Wall is beneath this portion of the wall surrounding the temple complex rebuilt by Herod over the site of the original temple in Jerusalem. Herod“s Temple (rectangular) is to the left in the foreground, and in the background are the four crenellated towers of the Antonia Fortress.

I’d seen all the usual Christian sites of Jerusalem: the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Garden Tomb and the Via Dolorosa, but until I visited the Israel Museum, on Ruppin Road, not far from the Knesset, I still had no concept of what Jerusalem actually looked like in the time of Jesus Christ.

Most visitors to the Israel Museum concentrate on the Shrine of the Book, where the Dead Sea Scrolls are exhibited, without realizing that nearby is a scale model of the city of Jerusalem as it would have appeared in the first century C.E. during the Late Second Temple Period.

I saw there a model of the magnificent Second Temple as expanded by King Herod the Great and built on the same site as Solomon’s temple, destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 BC. The model shows the city in the year AD 66. The city would later be sacked and the temple destroyed after a nine-month siege by the Romans on Aug. 29, AD 70.

The scale model of Herod’s Temple conveys some idea of its magnificence at the time of Jesus Christ. Photos: Patten

Jerusalem in miniature and scaled at 1:50 still covers 2,000 square meters (21,520 sq. ft.). Built by the archaeologist Michael Avi-Yona between 1962 and 1966, the model is based on the writings of the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus as well as on various archaeological excavations. The model was located at the Holy Land Hotel in Jerusalem until it was transported to the museum in 2006.

Admission to the Israel Museum (phone 02 6708811, www.imj.org.il) costs 36 shekels (near $9.50) per adult or 18 shekels for a senior with “international ID.”

Continually updated with new archaeological findings, the scale model is probably the world’s best place to see Jerusalem as Jesus saw it.

DAVID J. PATTEN

Saint Petersburg, FL