Stand on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and see Solomon's Temple rise around you, from the outer court to the Holy of Holies. A living reconstruction of the sanctuary, right where it stood, on your phone.
Try the appThe building at the heart of ancient Jerusalem stood for roughly three and a half centuries, from its construction under King Solomon around 960 BCE to its destruction by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. Nothing of it survives above ground today. The site itself, the Temple Mount, is now one of the most closely watched and carefully managed places on Earth, and standing there gives no sense of the building that once filled it.
TimeLens brings it back with Ofer Becker of Becker Innovation. Working from the detailed descriptions left in ancient sources, among them the Hebrew Bible, the Mishnah tractate Middot, the Talmud and later rabbinic commentaries, read here as historical documents for the building's measurements, materials and layout, in the same way we use the Castello Plan for New Amsterdam or classical accounts for Athens. Stand at the site, raise your phone, and see the Temple restored around you, its cedar, bronze and gold set out where these texts place them.
What makes this reconstruction unusual is how precisely the building survives on paper. Ancient sources give measurements down to the cubit for its walls, gates, courts and altar, checked here against more than forty separate texts, which lets the model be built to scale rather than impression, from the public court at the edge of the compound through to the small chamber at its centre.
Each TimeSpot is a real place within the Temple complex where you can stand and see the past restored in full, 360 degrees around you. Travel to a spot to unlock it, then look around the scene at your own pace. The map shows every TimeSpot, and new ones are added as the project grows.
Make your way to one of the historic locations shown on the map. Once you arrive, it automatically unlocks the TimeSpot for you.
Hold up your phone and take in the scene in every direction. A 360-degrees historic reconstruction of the city full of life.
For each location you discover, you receive a badge and some TimeCoins as a reward. Discovering combinations of TimeSpots even gives you special awards.
Every reconstruction takes months of research and craft. A small amount each month helps us build more of them, and brings you along for the journey, with early previews, behind the scenes insights, and a say in which places we bring back next. You can even have your name featured in the app, or appear as a figure in a future scene.
Support us on PatreonFollow the newest reconstructions, fresh TimeSpots and the stories behind our work in Jerusalem, as the project keeps growing.
Want to see more updates about TimeLens in other locations, check out all the other updates below.
Beneath the most sacred room Solomon ever built lies a single piece of bare rock. It has sat at the centre of this hill for thousands of years, and across roughly three thousand of them, tradition holds that four…
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At the entrance to Solomon's Temple stood two enormous bronze pillars, each around nine and a half metres tall, crowned with ornamented capitals rising several metres more. They are named, individually, in the old…
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Imagine standing inside Solomon's Temple, the First Temple of Jerusalem, nearly three thousand years ago. Gold covers the walls. The menorah burns, the table of the showbread stands ready, and the golden altar of…
Read MoreEvery TimeSpot in the Temple complex is based on the reconstruction created by Ofer Becker of Becker Innovation, so each scene rests on years of textual research rather than guesswork. The model draws on ancient sources including the Hebrew Bible, the Mishnah tractate Middot, the Talmud and later rabbinic commentaries, checked here against 42 ancient and rabbinic texts and more than 240 individual references in total, to reconstruct the compound to scale.
The historical accuracy was guided by the expert consultation of Dr. David Jeselsohn, whose expertise contributed significantly to the reliability of the presentation.
