Temple Oct 2010

A Chapel belongs to the Castle

When I started to think and design Chapel, we finally end up into a separate chapel. And to a very special one too. Decided, that we will build a replica from Solomon's temple. Have been working very hard on the initial plans.  And finally got them ready on October 7th 2010.

Temple will have all modern things, electricity, communications, drains and water pipes. The estimated construction cost is 2-3 billion dollars. Not millions or trillions, we are naturally talking about billions here. I am not very familiar with millions and trillions.  Billions are my numbers. For Real. You know.

The Historical Look

When we looked pictures from the existing Babylonian ruins, which are Solomon's time constructions, they didn't have plain walls. They have boxed projections on the walls, just like Temple has. Outer wall projections and columns are not decorative, they belong to the historical look.

There aren't ruins from the Solomon's Temple, the Second temple, was built on the same place than the Solomon's temple. 2nd temple was built 100 years after Babylonians destroyed the 1st Temple. The Jews of the time probably used 1st temple leftovers in their construction work. Solomon's Temple was built app 3000 years ago. It stood on its place for 500 years.

Before fulfilling the prophecy of the 3rd Temple,  you must first find the exact location of the two ancient Temples. According to the Bible, the real 3rd Temple  
must be built on the same site,  with the same size.

The Temple

Unlike the Castle, Temple will be made from White Jerusalem Stones. Roofs and floors are made from wood. Just like in original temple.
Possible, that we use steel balks under and over the wooden structure. If we do so, the beams will be invisible.

We tried to follow the original construction as much as we could. And as much as there was information about it. 
The width of the holy place was the only width, which is mentioned in the Bible. The width is inner width. ( Comes from the Golden Birds )

In Tower and Holy Place we took advantage from the lack of information. The stairs and Bimah took so much space, that we widened the other two rooms. The length of the Holy Place is taken from the Bible. 

The Tower is one feet longer, than the Bible says. Didn't get the elevator and stairs into the tower without making this sin.

The Most Holy place has cubic form, 28 feet per side. Just like in original Temple.

According to the Jewish Bible, walls of the Most Holy place were made of Gold. Golden wall plates are almost the only thing, we were forced to make a bargain.

Making the walls from Gold, even with a thin gold plates, would cost over billion dollars.

The money and availability are not the problem. The security is. Building over 10 billion dollar exact copy from the temple, would attract thieves and others too. We would need an army for the temple area.

Golden Birds

According to the Jewish Bible, in the original Temple, in the Most Holy place, there were two birds, which were made of solid gold.

Their wingspan was exactly 14 feet. The length of the birds is not known. When tail is included, the birds are usually as long as they are wide. It was impossible to carry the birds in, in vertical position, wings are too thin for carrying the weight of the bird. So there is a good reason to believe, that the birds were carried in, in horizontal position. And the doors were wide enough for the birds.

Yes. We decided to make the temple so, that there are holes, from which was possible to bring the birds to the Most Holy place ( = Ark in Jewish Synagogues ) The Golden Doors which lead to the Most Holy place are 16 feet wide. They will be gold plated just the walls. And there is also a "Bird Hole" in the temple wall. A Big hidden door, which slides inside the wall. In our construction there will also be Bird Hole elevator, hidden behind sliding stone walls. Although the elevator will be built like it belonged to the original construction. Steel wires are replaced with iron chains, and the elevator is lifted and lowered with a crank. The floor will have stone coating.

Mobile Bimah and Holy Place

The main use for the Bird hole is the mobile Bimah in the Holy place. It can be transferred away from the Holy place. We ended in to the mobile Bimah, mostly because of historical nature of Temple. Bimah didn't  belong to the original Temple.

Besides the historical look, the mobile Bimah makes it possible to keep all kinds of Biblical events in the Temple.Christian and Muslim events are also possible.

With the hole it is easy to modify Temple's look between the modern and historical looks. We will build / decorate two looks for the Holy Place. Modern and ancient. There will be storages under the building, which are used for storing the another set apparels, furniture and others.

Unlike in the Most Holy place, the Holy Place will have windows. There is lots of window space over the storage roofs. In the default modern layout there are 81 seats in the Holy Place. The seats are comfortable armchairs.

The Tower

The tower was quite long time a questionable thing. Did it exist or not. It is mentioned in the Jewish Bible. According to the Bible the Tower was 160 feet high. I did some background studies. Babylonians ( nowadays Iraq ) built app 300 feet towers before the Temple. So. The myth of the High Tower was confirmed, and it was included to be a part of  Temple.

The construction of the tower was a bit difficult. When compared to the height, the floor area is very small. Not very very strong structure in heavy over 100 mph winds. There is big supportive stone grid under the tower. Besides that there will be a steel beam support system, which raises from the ground to support the tower on heavy winds. We drill deep holes for the supports. And build some kind of mounting system to the tower. The beams raise to over 100 feet, and they are thick.

Due to the Tower, the famous statues Boaz and Jachin were transferred to the front patio. They are supporting a small roof.

When we thought about it, we came to the conclusion,  that the Tower probably had some sort ladder system. So that the scouts can climb to the top of the tower.

The tower has 13 floors. ( plus ground floor and roof  terrace ) There are rooms and open space on the floors. The rooms are 15 * 17.5 feet, and they have everything, which is needed for bathroom. Water pipes and drains, to be exact. Since all roofs are plain, there are entrances to the Temple and Front roofs in the tower. Entrance floors are open spaces with coffee making capabilities. 3rd coffee floor is right under the Tower's Roof and Roof Terrace.

There is also an elevator in the tower. On the ground floor the elevator door is hidden. It looks like a stone wall, and there will be smoking device which is integrated to the door openings. Kids will love it, you know. One floor is dedicated to the big David Star windows and religious things.

The Yard

The Bible says there was swimming pool ( Brazen Sea ) on the temple yard. The pool is good proof from existence of the temple. The size of the pool is correctly informed in the bible. Calculated the size for the reconstruction. ( during design, we read many stories, which said, that the 1st Temple didn't necessarily exist  )

The Brazen Sea is very precisely described in the Jewish Bible. Just like the Brazen Altar. The altar was for burnt offers. So we decide put fire works into it. Looks good in the evenings. They are both quite high constructions, the Brazen Sea is 5 feet high, and the Brazen Altar is 7 feet high. The normal room height in modern buildings is 8 feet.

Besides the brazen sea, the Bible says, there were also 10 mobile water vessels on the Temple Yard. The small blue dots on the yard.

The shape of the Temple Yard is taken from the heart.

The Storages

The Temple was surrounded with storages. The Bible said that these storages were for treasuries and they were called parlors. After few thoughts, we came to the conclusion, that they had only 1 floor. Multi floor buildings were very rare by the Solomon's time. We, or rather she, decided that we fill the storages with fake treasuries. So that they look as real as possible. Southern Storage row ends to a closed room, the room is reserved for ministry ( a place for Rabbis / Priests ) There are doors on both sides of the Temple, which lead to the storages. Possible to make a run around trips there. Good place for some kind of exhibitions too. We tried to keep the Temple as narrow as possible. So that it would look as real as possible. So the storages are quite narrow. In Solomon's time even the widest open spaces were narrow

The Court House

According to the Bible, the temple was surrounded with two Court houses, they were on both sides of the temple. Another one of them came to the design, after we found out that tower is not big enough for serving 81 guests. So we decided to make the quest / cafe room to another Court House. The court house is simple one floor building. The size and shape are similar to the Temple.

The Site

Temple will be built on Deadlock Island, or where ever Deadlock HQ will be. She decided, that on the island, it will be far away from my Fairy Tale castle. The highest and best place for her Temple. And that's about it.