The Temple Mount and the Roman City of Aelia Capitolina
by Yaron Eliav (University of Michigan)
For more than a hundred years scholars have been trying to reconstruct the Roman colony Aelia Capitolina and figure out its urban infrastructure. This paper revisits this issue from the perspective of the Temple Mount, the huge Herodian compound that occupies the eastern parts of today’s Old City. I do not intend to discuss all aspects of Aelia’s landscape or physical layout, but only those that pertain to the role of the Temple Mount within this municipality and shed light on its relation to the city. Although this enclosure is mentioned in all modern accounts of Roman (i.e., post-Second Temple) Jerusalem, it has never, as far as I know, been the focus of any discussion in and of itself. The question at the heart of the present study is therefore geographical-historical in nature: What place did the Temple Mount occupy in the urban plan of Aelia Capitolina?
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