Bible Synapse
Robinson's Arch
Site · after AD 17/18 · Time of Jesus
See it on the map and timeline
- Date
- after AD 17/18 (the arch's building, dated by coins beneath the street)
- Found
- South-west corner of the Temple Mount, Jerusalem, 1838. Edward Robinson identified the springing of the arch in 1838. Benjamin Mazar's excavations from 1968 found the pier that carried its western end, and Ronny Reich and Yaacov Billig cleared the street beneath it in the 1990s.
- Now
- At the site (Jerusalem Archaeological Park), Jerusalem
- Passages
- Matthew 24:1–2, Luke 19:43–44
What it is
The stub of a great arch jutting from the Temple Mount's western wall about 12 metres from its south-west corner. It carried a monumental stairway from the street in the valley below up to the royal portico on top of the platform. Underneath runs a paved street lined with small shops, still covered by huge blocks that fell from the wall when the city was destroyed in AD 70.
How it connects to the Bible
The stairway was one of the ways up to the Temple courts where the Gospels set Jesus' teaching in Jerusalem. The fallen stones still lying on the street fit his warning, as Luke records it, that the city's enemies “shall not leave in thee one stone upon another”.