MAP OF HEROD'S JERUSALEM

A model showing the view across Jerusalem towards Herod's Temple
At left is the Antonia Fortress
In the middle is the palace of the Judean royal family

A map showing the extent of Jerusalem in the time of Jesus

By the time that Herod completed building the Temple, the total area of the stone platform on which it stood was twice what it was when he started.

He  had set himself two tasks:

• to restore the Temple building to the same size it was when Solomon built it
• to make the courtyard around the Temple the largest articial sacred area in existence.

Why didn't Herod make the new Temple bigger than it had been?

Because the dimensions of the Temple were sacrosanct. They had been laid down in Deuteronomy 23:8, and retained (except for the height) when the post-Exilic Temple was built.

Herod would not have dared depart from this precedent.

But the dimensions of the courtyards surrounding the Temple had not been stipulated, so Herod was free to enlarge them and make them suitably magnificent. The dimensions of its four sides were

• north 351 yards
• south 309 yards
• east 518 yards
• west 536 yards.

It was larger than the Acropolis at Athens - double its width and 100 yards longer.

   The Acropolis at Athens, which Herod must have seen
- and which he outdid

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