Alan Balfour, a leading architectural historian, combines scrupulous research, primary documentation and ample illustration, with an authoritative and elegant narration to chronicle the history of a place that serves as a cultural nexus of Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike. He vividly re-creates the will of the players - Solomon, Herod, Christ, Paul, Muhammad - and the epic events that have been played out on this sacred ground, which continues to compel the imagination of all the religions of the book.
The book details the constructions and reconstructions from its founding into the present and the continuing struggle after the Israel-Arab wars; anticipating the future controversies about the possession and use of the site. Alongside the pilgrims, plunderers, and power brokers, Solomon’s Temple depicts the many travellers and artists who have passed through, narrated, and imagined the Temple across the millennia.
