Temple Mount
religious hilltop in the Old City of Jerusalem
Episodes
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#5824: Herod's Four Walls: Why Only One Became the KotelHerod built four retaining walls around the Temple Mount. Three survive today — but only one became Judaism's holiest prayer site. Here's why.Main topic -
#5822: Building Herod's Wall, One Course at a TimeHow 300-tonne limestone blocks became a 488-metre retaining wall — without anyone ever lifting them to the top.Main topic -
#5802: The Mamluks: From Slave Market to Sultan's ThroneHow did enslaved soldiers become the rulers of Egypt and the Levant for 267 years? The Mamluk system explained.Main topic -
#5684: Who Built the Dome of the Rock?The stones are documented. The dirt underneath them has never been dug. Why the Temple Mount is archaeology's biggest open question.Main topic -
#5683: How a Handshake Became the Temple Mount Status QuoNo treaty, no law, no signature — just Moshe Dayan's oral agreement with the Waqf, still governing the Mount 59 years later.Main topic -
#5494: How Ancient Jerusalem Outgrew Its Own WallsJerusalem's Old City walls are Ottoman, not ancient — and the original city sits outside them. Tracing 4,000 years of expansion and contraction.Main topic -
#5493: Jerusalem Before Sukkot: Reconstructing the Pilgrim CityWhat did Jerusalem feel like to residents when Sukkot tripled the city? Archaeology and ancient sources reconstruct the transformation.Main topic -
#5356: Torch Juggling in the Temple: Inside Sukkot's All-Night Water FestivalFifteen hours of torch juggling, nonstop music, and a rain ritual the Torah never commanded — inside the Second Temple's wildest celebration.Main topic -
#5803: Who Built Jerusalem's Old City Walls?The stone ring around Jerusalem's Old City is younger than you think — and the legend about its architects is wrong. -
#5677: When 80,000 Pilgrims Fill Your NeighborhoodSukkot turns central Jerusalem into a pilgrimage site. What can locals borrow from New Yorkers who live beside Times Square? -
#5642: What Archaeology Says About the BibleFrom the Tel Dan Stele to the missing First Temple — what secular archaeology has actually confirmed, disputed, and refuted in the Bible. -
#5612: Who Keeps Working During Sukkot?An ideal of universal rest meets a city that doubles in size. Who kept the lights on during the pilgrim festivals? -
#5350: Messiah, Eschaton, and the AI SingularityFour traditions, four different job descriptions for "Messiah" — and what the AI singularity borrowed from all of them. -
#5423: Underground Burial in Jerusalem: 24,000 Graves, 3 ElevatorsJerusalem ran out of ground for its dead — so it built a multi-storey car park where the parking spaces are graves. -
#5351: Six Thousand Years and a Deadline That Keeps MovingRav Katina's 6,000-year clock says the year 2239. The Ramban called it non-binding. Maimonides cursed anyone who used it. -
#5180: Egypt's Gaza and Israel's Jerusalem: Two Legal SuspensionsEgypt ruled Gaza for 19 years without annexing it. Israel applied full law to East Jerusalem in 1967. Two occupied places, two very different legal...