Herod Builds Jenni Menashe, a senior guide at the Kotel Tunnels, emails, "The stones (in the Herodian construction, C.S.) on average are 1.2m cubed and weigh on average ½ ton (there are both bigger and smaller than these sizes but those are the calculated average size and weight). Only two of the stones are longer than 12m and the largest stone (which is part of a series of 4 stones that act as a buttress) is 13.6m long, 3.5m high (because part of it was destroyed) and 4.5m deep and weighs 570 tonnes (metric) which is 628 imperial tons… We usually denote that this measurement (600 tonnes) is approx the weight of 200 elephants which is a far easier weight for the general public to grasp. It is not the largest building block in the world, it is probably 6th or 7th in the world, but it is the largest found in Israel. - The length of the Western Wall is 488m and it is the longest of the four walls of Har Habayit (of which only 57m is the section at the Western Wall Plaza,that we think of as the 'Kotel' today)." Josephus noted that Herod "got ready a thousand wagons, that were to bring stones for the building." Smaller blocks were conveyed from the quarry to the building site by two wheeled wagons drawn by two oxen. Some- what larger blocks were transported in four-wheeled vehicles drawn by four oxen. Though they are very strong and harnessed teams of oxen pull incredible loads, they also are very slow. Under normal circumstances a team of oxen can pull a heavily loaded wagon roughly 1.5 km/h. If there are obstacles, considerably less. The wheels for such wagons were made from criss-crossed planks of wood and iron rims protected the wood from wear. Some of the "medium sized" stones were conveyed in extraordinary ways. J.D. Landels in his Engineering in the Ancient World (p.183) describes some of them. Sometimes "it was necessary to transport abnormally heavy loads overland without using wheeled vehicles at all… One ingenious method was to use a column shaft or column drum (which could be roughed out round at the quarry) as a roller by constructing a wooden frame around it, and fixing short iron spigots at each end (by making a socket and pouring in lead) and fixing bearings in the wood frame in which the spigots turned. The frame was then hitched to a team of oxen and pulled along like a heavy road-roller…" Square or rectangular blocks could not be rolled along. "Accordingly two wheels were made about 3.66m in diameter, probably of the cross-bar type with heavy bars and broad felloes (rims), so they did easily sink into the ground. The ends of the… blocks were 'enclosed' in the wheels (probably between the cross-bars) and fitted with a spigot at each end which… turned in a bearing mounted in a wood frame…" The transporting of the more massive stones to the building required a more "primitive" solution - teams of oxen were lined up in tandem pulling a single rope attached to a stone was positioned on top of rollers. As the stone slowly inched forward leaving rollers behind, workers picked them up, carried them to the front of the stone and placed them in its path so it could continue moving on the rollers. Sometimes the more massive stones were transported by men utilizing pulleys. Max Schwartz (The Biblical Engineer pg. 28) writes, "To pull heavy stone blocks across the ground, the workers anchored one pulley block to a wooden pile driven into the ground and the second to the block. They reeved, or strung, the rope between the two pulley blocks and pulled the end, either by men, oxen or capstan. The number of pulleys used amplified the pull on the rope. For example five ropes reeved between the two pulley blocks increased the force at the end of the rope almost fivefold. Before lifting a heavy stone block, the rigger figured its weight, then selected the size and number of ropes needed to carry that load. Then he chose the number of blocks and size of pulleys. Finally, the rigger determined how to pull the rope." Some of the smaller blocks were lifted into place by the utilization of pulleys. Very sophisticated cranes lifted and positioned the heavier stones in place. Over 400(!) years earlier, "hi-tech" cranes lifted architrave sections of the Parthenon weighing 9 tons each a height of 10.5m for positioning on the columns. The columns were built of 11 drums, each one weighing 8 tons which had to be lowered accurately onto a central spigot. Paraphrasing the ancient engineer Vitruvius who was a contemporary of Herod and the source of much of our knowledge about ancient technology, Landels writes, "Two beams are required (for one type of crane) for the jib (the projecting arm of a crane), their thickness depending on the maximum probable load. They are fixed together on top with an iron bracket, and separated at the base like an inverted V… Ropes are attached to the head of this jib and arranged 'all around' to keep it steady. A pulley block is suspended from the top with two wheels, one above the other; the hoisting rope passes over the highest of these, down and around the (single) wheel of the lower block which is attached to the load, up again and around the lower pulley of the upper block, and down again to an eye on the lower block. The other end is brought down between the legs of the jib to a windlass turned by handspikes… From the lower pulley block iron forceps are suspended, the teeth of which fit into holes in the blocks of stone to be lifted." Frequently stones were hoisted by means of ropes hooked around bosses, stone protrusions in the blocks which were later removed. A forgotten few bosses still protrude from retaining wall ashlars. How were these powerful cranes powered? By manpower! While oxen are much stronger then men are, they are almost impossible to coordinate. Swartz writes, "The Romans hoisted loads with large tread wheels. These were similar to water wheels in which flowing water rotated the wheel. The tread wheel was wide enough to allow one or more men to continually climb the rungs. Their weight rotated the wheel and drum, thereby exerting the pulling force." A man climbing a large tread wheel could produce a pull of almost ten times his weight and therefore "increasing the number of men in the wheel magnified the pull proportionally." Spurred on by Herod's intense interest and the efforts of thousands of workers, the massive retaining walls of Har HaBayit slowly took shape - their massive retaining walls rose, course by course. Terrace-like, each course was slightly recessed from the one to ensure its stability. Josephus comments about some of Herod's construction techniques. "He also built a wall… and at the south side (and no doubt elsewhere -CS) he laid rocks together and bound them with lead and included some of the inner parts, until it proceeded to a great height and… both the size of the square edifice and its altitude were immense, and until the vastness of the stones in the front were plainly visible from the outside, yet so that the inward parts were fastened together with iron , and preserved the joints immovable for all future times" (Antiquities 15:11;3) (Incidentally, the marvelous English website of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation - www.thekotel.org - aside from other invaluable material, features an animated movie about how the Har HaBayit retaining walls were built. Check it out!) <to be continued> Catriel's book in progress: The Temple of Jerusalem, A Pilgrim’s Perspective; A Guided Tour through the Temple and the Divine Service [The
Parshat Ki Tavo Homepage]
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