Did you know there was another temple in Jerusalem before the Second Temple (destroyed in 70 CE)? And before the First Temple built by King Solomon (destroyed 586 BCE by Babylonians).
This temple is informally known as Temple Zero and it dates from the time of Abraham, c. 2000 BCE. The place where Abraham did not sacrifice Isaac was Mt. Moriah. There was a city there called Salem with a high priest named Melchizedek.
Today our tour group from Los Angeles visited the ruins of the original 1000 BCE City of David outside the walls of the 1st C. city of Jerusalem. We also saw the altar of Melchizedek and a pillar next to it.
Our tour guide, Eli Shukron, discovered the City of David here, and he directed the excavation that led to the discovery of the altar from the time of Abraham.
It all began when he halted the digging for a water line because he heard the scrape of a backhoe on rock. Turned out to be Pool of Siloam mentioned in bible as where Jesus healed Blind Man. In 20 yrs of digging excavated 1100 tons of dirt, and he found artifacts from 2000 BCE City of David. Twice he opened locked doors to show us things no tourist ever sees--current work including 2000 BCE altar and pillar of non-Jewish Melchizedek Animal sacrifice.
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