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Second Temple of Jerusalem

Michael Avi-Yonah, detail from a model of the second temple of Jerusalem, 1966. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Photograph by Todd Bolen.

Now on display in the outdoor sculpture garden of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem is a 1:50 (1 m = 50 m) scale model of Jerusalem and the second temple (shown here) as it might have looked in the year 66 C.E. The huge topographic model opened to the public in 1966 and covers over 21,000 square feet. Michael Avi-Yonah, professor of archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, designed the model based on historical sources, including the writings of Flavius Josephus, a first-century C.E. Roman Jewish scholar and historian. The year 66 C.E. marked the beginning of the First Jewish Revolt, which culminated with the utter destruction of the city and the temple in 70 C.E.

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Model of the Second Temple in Jerusalem during the time of Herod. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

The structure built in Jerusalem in 516 B.C.E. on the site of the Temple of Solomon, destroyed by the Babylonians seventy years prior. The Second Temple was destroyed in 70 C.E. by the Romans responding to Jewish rebellion.

The revolt of the Jews against the Roman Empire between 66 and 73 C.E., the result of which was the destruction of Jerusalem and the second temple.

A West Semitic language, in which most of the Hebrew Bible is written except for parts of Daniel and Ezra. Hebrew is regarded as the spoken language of ancient Israel but is largely replaced by Aramaic in the Persian period.

A Jewish historian from the first century C.E. His works document the Jewish rebellions against Rome, giving background for early Jewish and Christian practices.

The third division of the Jewish canon, also called by the Hebrew name Ketuvim. The other two divisions are the Torah (Pentateuch) and Nevi'im (Prophets); together the three divisions create the acronym Tanakh, the Jewish term for the Hebrew Bible.