Jerusalem's Temple Mount: From Solomon to the Golden Dome

Jerusalem's Temple Mount: From Solomon to the Golden Dome by Shanks, Hershel. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780826428844.

According to the Hebrew Bible, King Solomon built a Temple to the Lord in Jerusalem on a threshing floor that his father, King David, purchased from Araunah the Jebusite for 50 shekels of silver. "No other building of the ancient world," claims the Anchor Bible Dictionary, "either while it stood in Jerusalem or in the millennia since its final destruction has been the focus of so much attention throughout the ages." This stunning book, with its 160 illustrations, is a history of the Temple or Temples in Jerusalem from Solomons time to the present. The book reads like an archaeological excavation, digging deeper and deeper at one site. Starting with a discussion of the Palestinian denial of a Jewish Temple, the book proceeds to explore the Islamic Dome of the Rock, the little-known Roman Temple of Jupiter, Herods massive Temple Mount, the Temple built by the exiles returning from Babylon, and finally Solomons Temple. With a lively and informative text to accompany the pictures, Jerusalems Temple Mount is replete with archaeology, history, legends (Jewish, Christian, and Muslim), inscriptions, biblical interpretations, and forgeries.