It was thought that Herod built the compound, but coins found under the wall were stamped more than 20 years after his death.
(Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)
Western Wall coins challenge theory
Point to later date for construction of Jerusalem site
It was thought that Herod built the compound, but coins found under the wall were stamped more than 20 years after his death.
(Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)
Newly found coins underneath Jerusalem’s Western Wall could change the accepted belief about the construction of one of the world’s most sacred sites two millennia ago, Israeli archaeologists said yesterday. The man usually credited with building the compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary is Herod, a Jewish ruler who died in 4 B.C. Herod’s monumental compound replaced and expanded a much older Jewish temple complex on the same site.
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