Jerusalem aerial from the north

This high drone footage serves well to show today’s Old City. It’s a great way to illustrate Jerusalem without having to see modern buildings in the background. Note the walls of the Old City and the Kidron Valley that separates the Temple Mount from the Mt. of Olives. The gold-domed building on the Temple Mount is the Dome of the Rock, an Islamic structure. The Jewish Temple stood on the location in biblical times. Solomon’s Temple was built on a far smaller platform. Solomon’s Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC. Ezekiel’s vision of rebuilding the Temple must have seemed impossible to those who saw the ruins, but the exacting details of the rebuilding plan would have given them hope. Indeed, Herod the Great expanded the Temple Mount, doubling it in size just before Jesus was born. The Temple Herod built was far larger and more expensive than what Solomon had constructed. This most lavish Temple was destroyed in AD 70, about 40 years after Jesus was crucified outside the city walls. The Temple Mount suffered damage in that destruction, but later rulers repaired it, making it possible for us to visualize where hundreds of thousands gathered for one of the Jewish holidays. More than 400,000 at a time can visit the sacred area today. When David first saw this area, there was only a small village here. The community remained very small until the mid-1900s. Today the population of Jerusalem is nearing 1 million.