Newspaper Page Text
SECOND SECTION.
The Atlanta Georgian and News
SECOND SECTION.
Visit to Holy City Where
the Great Temple Oflce
Stood.
Monster Pillars Cut From
Solid Stone Tell Story
of Temple;
was built 263 years ago. Marble and
alabaster such as one could hardly
dream of, red, black, green and all
shades of marble Inlaid In white mar
ble, the work of ages, exquisite beyond
description—alabaster screens eight
The sarco-
By F. L. SEELY
Publisher of the Georgian.
I BELIE7VE every Mason asks him
self or someone else the question,
“Was there ever a Solomon’s
tenpla and what did It amount tor*
1 spent over a week at and near the
ilts and remains of Solomon's real tem
ple at Jerusalem, and In the quarry
wbere he got the stone for'the temple,
saJ now I want to convey In picture
sod story the proofs that gave me a
most vivid Idea of the wonderful work
Solomon did so many years ago.
It Is not my Intention to Indulge In
Biblical history nor dry statistics. Most
of us know that the Bible, the works
of Josephus, "The Explorations of
the Pilgrims of Bordeaux." and other
feet high like living lace,
phagl or sepulchres of the ruler who
built It and his wife. In whose - honor
It was built, simply studded and
crowded with diamonds, emeralds, ru
bles, sapphires and every sort of pre
cious stone and even the Koh-I-noor
diamond, and this from the ruler of
only one feudal state In India, al
most overshadows the story of the
temple.
• The great DIabutsu of Japan, tha
great Idol—49 feet high—one solid piece
of bronze six Inches thick and hollow—.
are tho 'plllars of Booz and Jachln too
great to be true? No. We have seen
with our own eyes the TdJ Mahat and
the DIabutsu and believe. We have not
seen the great temple, but we do be
hove.
The buildings around the temple were
very elaborate and all of the white
limestone found In the quarry, like the
keystone I have presented to the Ua-
sonlo Temple committee. Thero were
hundreds of columns lining the fronts
and sides of these buildings—there Is
not the least doubt that the columns
used by 8t. Helena In building the
Church of the Nativity—and those In
side tha golden gate . through which
Christ entered Jerusalem—are from
Solomon’s buildings.
Relics of the Temple,.
The Holy City abounds In relics of
the great temple, and the fact that most
of them ore of atone makes them as
unchangeable as the rocky hills them
selves, where hardly enough soil la
found to. give gross to the sheep that
roam. them.
. The .temple;Is gone—not a stone la
left, upon stone. Where the Holy of
Holies stood, now stands a heathen
mosque^—the mosque of Omar. The
rock Is there—the pools of Solomon are
on the hills. Nine' miles away great
square caverns cut from the solid
rocky hUl' sides—and strangely they
and the great "sealed .fountain” that
has been pouring Its living water Into
the-pools there .thousands . of years
since Solomon opened It—though It has
only been'found In the last half cen
tury—Is once more supplylng'the City
of Jerusalem through a pipe line that
follows ' the courso • of - the' old aque
duct that preceded It 3,000 years.
. And so we go back to the Holy City
again. Many facts ami dates rolling
over-and over In our minds, cherished
pictures' on the delicate films of our
cameras,, all In an endeavor to corrcb-
Bolomon's quarry. I had to take my
Interpreter with me and get permis
sion from the Turkish government,
which holds Palestine. They sent a
Turkish soldier with me to the quarry
and he stayed at the entrance until I
came out.
King 8olomon's Quarry.
It Is like a mine with only one en
trance. It la under the city of Jerusa
lem and nlns -back probably 2,000 feet,
ypttl the back end Is Just about under
the temple Area. it having been possible
to cut the stone In the quarry and bring
It up to the temple Immediately over it.
The quarry Is very large. Stone enough
bad been taken. It seems, to build a
thousand of the biggest churches one
would ever see. Pillars are left to sup
port the roof, which -Is the City of
Jerusalem, Just as one sees In the
"rooms” of a coal mine. The ancient
tool marks are there In the stone, and
the floor Is several feet deep In chips
of atone cut away by the builders near
ly 3,009 years ago, and as I went on
and on In the deepest darkness I havo
ever seen, guided only by candles I
took with me, suddenly coming to a
precipice dropping down 20 or 30 fcot
rt|ht under near where the temple
•toed, a faint Idea flashed ucrpss the
mind as to what must have been the
dlmenelons of some of the stones cut
to make these depths.
The broken half cut column un
earthed recently, of which I took a
•mp-shot, will give an Idea—It ts about
®*e feet In diameter.
Solomon’s 8tables.
The foundation arches shown In the
picture called Solomon's stables are
KING SOLOMON'S TEMPLE, ITS COURTS AND BUILDINGS, 1000 B. C.
The Temple Is the tall square building In the oenter of tho picture. This picture Is not entirely fanciful, as will be found by reading the story. This is a picture of the mo
the real Temple, placed In another photograph of the country in which it was located, and is probably the nearest to a correct conception that has ever bean had of Solomon's Temple.
Solomon's Temple. It was on a scale ot
1 to 200. He spent years building It
and each building was movable. It was
all-In a little stone house built to re
ceive 1L
-A Wonderful Model. .
So authentlo and correct was It be
lieved to be, that the British govern
ment paid him $3,000 for a reproduc
tion of It for the British Museum. I
called on him and mode an engage
ment for the, next day, and paid him
B. C.; then on to '30 B. C„ os Herod
rebuilt the tempio upon his promise
that It should be even finer than Solo
mon's, though ho failed to succeed In
that Changes continued to take placo
until wo reached tho present, and I
awoke from my dream when ho eald:
"This Is the temple area es It stands
today," and I realized that It was Iden
tical with the scene we had looked,on
In reality every day since our arrival.
In Old Jerusalem.
Solomon's temple occupied a rectan
gular elevation In one comer of the City
of Jerusalem.
Jerusalem, you know, Is a walled
city, something less than a mile squire.
A valley separates It from the Mount
of Olives, about a mile away, and on
the Mount of Olives, or the eastern side.
In qne comer, Is tho area whero once
stood Solomon's temple and the build
ings connected with It. The wall around
Jerusalem Is thick and high. In eome
places thirty feet, a* can be seen from
the picture of the Damascus Gate, and
quite a lot of the city wall, especially
around tho tempio part, ts that which
woe laid In Solomon's time. Immense
stonea eight to ten feet long and weigh
ing tons upon tons. In order to get the
level area on which the tempio and
buildings stood, the city wall had to run
up about thirty feet at the comer and
be filled In, and where It was deepest,
great stone-arched platforms under
which were passage ways, now called
Solomon's stables, supported the bulld-
Thcse lofty arched - pas -
tiers high. The roof was from 100 to
120 cubits high;.,It was of cpstly, stones
(marble), ^ringf a .-rfhlte appoaranie.
Tho floor, of the tempio was of flr
planks covered with gold. The walls
end celling were of cedar, • beautifully
carved and overlaid with gold. Nei
ther wood.nor stonocould bo seen .any
where, only gold could bo seen—plain
on-the-floors—and beautifully chased
Into the carving on tho walls. Flowers,
too,.werp. made on tho walls with pre
cious stones, which David provided.
The porch was lined with gold and the
two great pillars "Boaz'' and "Jachln."
'which' wvro cast by Hiram,.the great
.worker ■ In 'lino metals, were In one
pljco.
The finishings of the temple were
correspondingly rich In gold and pro--
clous'stones, and are too long a story
to repeat now. But I must catch the
doubt.that.arises as to the possibility
of tho fairylike etory of gold, gold,
gold—end precious stones nnd the great
pillars of solid brass.
Tho Orest Taj Mshsl.
At Agra India thero stands today
tho Taj Mahal. Twenty-two thousand
men worked ten years to build It. It
wear down to n [mint that a email hole
was exposed and by accident a dog fell
mtc It. ' ! - r ' • H
Discovery of Quarry.
Investigation showed that tho quarry
had been brought to light. This was
merely corroboration. ; ,
So now wo have seen the quarry-and
tho foundations.
another specimen of the size, tho mass
iveness of the work. There la no
doubt, no chance 'for question as to
the temple. Its stzo and Its beauty.
Now os we nro not . going to depend
extradition for our knowledge of Solo-
about.the
mon's Temple, let's
sources from which my Information
camo before we follow up the temple.
We stayed at the little hotel where
lives Dr. Sclah Merrill, a most learned
New Englander, who was sent to Pal
estine twenty-five years ago by an
Dr. Merrill acts
Now, as to the tem-s
pie.
Tho temple Itself was really tho sin
gle building around which were the
courts and buildings. In front of.lt we»
the altar of burnt offerings. South of
It was tho brazen sea, on twelve hol
low oxon through whoso mouths water
ran to a basin on the ground. From
the court twclvo steps led up to tho
two brass pillars "Boas" and "Jachln,"
In front of tho porch. Thero were
many rooms In tho tempio and In an
Inner wall was a large door leading to'
the holy place, .40. cubits long, 20 wide
and $0 high (a cubit Is about 20 Inches).
To tha west was a cedar wall, 20 cubits
high, and doors of olive wood leading
to the "Holy of Holies,” 20 cubits
square. Over this and the Holy Placo
exploration society,
as American consul, too. He happens
to be a Mason, and we found him brim
ful of Information and facts, and hts
quarter of a century ^on the ground
mode Palestine os familiar to him as
one’s own home.
I asked him questions—he could an
swer nearly anything ono would 'ask—
but the best thing.he did was to tell
mo of one Scblrck, who had lived In
Jerusalem over fifty years, having
or some pillar, or some foundation, ltl
■ corresponded with the Biblical or other
historical dimensions, showing that at
no point did he have to draw on bis
Imagination for his' reproduction.
When we started In, the complete
temple stood there In miniature—as ha
talked on, 600 years passed In our
Imagination, and he hod changed the
[little.buildings and replaced them with
1 others, os Zorobabel rebuilt them tn 600
Continued on Next Pago.
Inga above'
sags’ ways, some with square and some
with round supports or columns, five
and six feet squart, or In diameter, are
of such ^effect and mathematical'pre
cision that nearly 3,000 years of duty,
though they were laid without cement,
has shown not the slightest change of
position. These arc the unchangeable,
indisputable records written In stone,
that nothing but ages upon ages can
And remember that
destroy by dscay.
we have seen with our own eyes the
key to the ancient helroglyphlcs discov
ered by Champolllon, where’ the same
story la cut In three languages—the
ancient to the Greek—opening Egyp
tian history to us five thousand years
back. No one doubts the sphinx being
pyramids 6,000
7,400 years old,
years, and we read their story In stone.
How much nearer then Is. Solomon
to us! 1
The quairy Itself was a sealed book,
unknown except historically until A630.
The* road leading outside the city wall
and. along the north end of the city to
the valley and the Mount of Oltyes
passes the only entrance to the quarry.
Centuries.upon centuries had.covered j
tip this'opening or mouth of the cave 1
and not until 1610 ■ did the roadway
ONE OF KING SOLOMON'8 POOLS. . -
There are three of these on tho mountain side. They are dug from the rock, and were built by Solomon 3,000
years ago. ,
- THE DAMASCUS GATE IN JERUSALEM.
One of the ancisnt gates through the city wall'of old Jerusalem, opsi
hrongsd with travelers.
mm
"xoh. V. NO 264.
ATLANTA, GA., WEDNESDAY, MAY 8,1907.
~pT>T/"ITP. In Atlanta: TWO TENTS.
ITXVAAlXU. On Trains: FIVE CENT8.
Ancient 7
emple of
King Solomon Birth
i t place of 1
^reemasonry