Stables for the Horses of the Templar Knights

(Background on "Solomon's Stables"
- excerpt from an article by Nadav Shragai,
"Ha'aretz", October 10, 1996)

A row of subterranean halls have been named Solomon's Stables. They are located at the southeastern corner of the Temple Mount, and enclosed by the external wall of the Mount. Their length is about 80 meters, from east to west, and they measure some 60 meters from north to south. Their height is about 9 meters, and their floor is some 12.5 meters lower than the Temple Mount courtyard. The ceilings of the halls and their arches are in a north-south direction. Altogether, 12 rows of such pillars and arches are known.

The Jerusalem District archeologist, Gidon Avni, has written: "It is customary to relate the building of the system of arches to the Herodean period, most likely as part of the work of widening the Temple Mount courtyard. In this work, the builders were forced to overcome the sharp topographical slope descending to the Kidron stream, in the vicinity of the southeastern corner of the Temple Mount, by building a huge sustaining wall 47 meters tall, and on its interior side the system of subterranean open structures. Building the archways was meant to reduce the pressure on the sustaining wall.

"For hundreds of years the site served as storage rooms, and during the Crusader period as stables, whose entry was outside the Temple Mount. Since the Crusader Period, the site has had no permanent use, but from time to time reinforcing and improvement works were carried out. The last occasion was a basic cleanup in 1890. The key to the only iron gate that opened into the stables in the current century has been in the hands of the Waqf, which was the body permitting infrequent visits by tourists to the site, and charging an entrance fee."

The researcher and historian Eli Schiller has written that since Crusader days the place has been named Solomon's Stables. The connection with Solomon is legendary, testimony to the powerful and exaggerated impression the place had on the Crusaders. The system of halls was improved in the 12th century by the knightly Order of Solomon's Temple (the Templars), whose members, fighting monks, gave them the name of Solomon's Stables. The Crusader King Baldwin handed the place over to the Knights Templars, and they turned it into stables for their horses. The Moslems claim Solomon's Stables in the past served them as a prayer hall called Marawi Bin Abdel Malik. Researchers have found no proof for this claim.