Solomon’s Temple is a building that was built by the Israelites in Jerusalem during the reign of King Solomon. It was used as a place of worship for God, and it was also used to house the Ark of the Covenant.
The Temple of Solomon was a building in Jerusalem, built by King Solomon, who ruled from 960 to 931 BC. It was the first temple built to house the Ark of Covenant, which contained the tablets upon which God wrote the Ten Commandments. The building was destroyed in 586 BC by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon.
The temple was built on a platform with two pillars supporting it. The pillars were made from bronze and stood 18 feet (5.5 m) high, each weighing about 15 tons (13 tonnes). The walls of the temple were covered in cedar wood imported from Lebanon. The flooring was made from marble from Egypt and from white stones that had been cut into squares and put together like tiles to make the flooring look like marble.
Inside, there was a golden altar where sacrifices were offered to God. There were also two large rooms where people could pray or talk to priests who worked there. In one room there were two tables with gold rings on them where priests would place their hands while they read others’ prayers aloud so that everyone could hear them better; this table is sometimes called “the mercy seat.”
The temple was 98 feet long and 49 feet wide.
The temple was 98 feet long and 49 feet wide. Its walls were made of solid gold, and its floor was overlaid with gold. The temple’s ceiling was latticed work, hand-carved out of acacia wood overlaid with pure gold. The altar inside the temple was also overlaid with gold. A pair of cherubim stood on either side of this altar, these cherubim were themselves made entirely out of solid gold, as well as the doors to the Holy Place and Most Holy Place (Exodus 26:1-37).
The highest point of the temple measured 150 feet from the floor.
The temple was a massive structure, measuring 150 feet from the floor. This measurement included the two staircases on either side of the building that led up to it and another staircase built inside for use during celebrations. The measurements also included two chambers where priests could perform ceremonies (one on each side).
The temple’s dimensions were:
- 98 feet long by 49 feet wide (30 x 15 meters)
- 150 feet high (45 meters)
The tabernacle also included a holy place, where the ark of the covenant was kept; an outer courtyard; and a “Most Holy Place,” where only the high priest could enter once a year. The tabernacle was made up of three parts: an outer court, which served as the public area where worshipers gathered and ceremonies took place; an inner court, which held the Tent of Meeting (also called the Tabernacle) that housed God’s presence on earth; anThe Great Temple of Giza was built during the reign of Pharaoh Khufu, who ruled Egypt from 2589-2566 BC. It is believed that it was built as a place where people could worship the sun god Re and also to honor Khufu’s father, Sneferu.d
The temple would have required over 22,000 cubic feet of cedar wood.
The temple would have required over 22,000 cubic feet of cedar wood. According to the United States Forest Service, the average height of a tree is 20 feet. This means that there were approximately 2,400 trees used in the construction of Solomon’s Temple.
Unfortunately, we don’t know how much timber costs today (and it changes with time), but you can get an idea by looking at what prices are for building materials in general and using your imagination.
The temple would have required about 7,500 cubic feet of cypress wood.
If you were building Solomon’s Temple today, you would need to buy 7,500 cubic feet of cypress wood.
Cypress wood is more expensive than cedar wood.
It would cost $16,500 to buy 7,500 cubic feet of cypress wood.
Piece of land to Build Solomon’s Temple
The land on which Solomon built the temple was purchased from a man named Araunah. Araunah’s threshing floor was located on Mount Moriah, and this is where Solomon built his temple.
The temple was built on Mount Moriah, which is where we see the Dome of the Rock today.
Excavation and Foundation
The foundation of the Temple was made of stone. The biblical sources are vague about exactly which types of stone were used for this purpose, but most scholars believe that the builders chose limestone because it is abundant in Israel. Limestone is soft and easy to carve, but also strong enough to support a building of Solomon’s size.
There are several ways that you can build a foundation from this type of rock:
- You can build a circular or square platform on top of which you will place your temple walls. This requires excavating large quantities of dirt and rock until you reach solid ground underneath (usually sandy), then lining up the platform with whatever design your architect has chosen for your temple’s base (such as an octagonal shape).
- You can dig down into the hard ground until you hit solid bedrock, then build upward from there using either wood logs or concrete blocks as supports beneath each tier’s weight until they meet at least one other tier above them (which means some kind of scaffolding must be used during construction).
You can build a series of terraces, each one slightly smaller than the last. The builders could then carve out the space between each level and fill it with dirt, sand or stone to create a solid foundation for the temple’s walls.
Architectural design
How the temple would have looked.
The temple was built in the shape of a cross, with three rooms: an outer room, a porch, and an inner room. The rectangular courtyard at the front of the building had two pillars framing its entranceway. A large stone altar stood in front of this courtyard.
There were also two other smaller altars inside the temple. The inner room was built with four columns supporting the roof and was about 6 meters wide by 9 meters long (20 feet by 30 feet). There were niches in these columns for holding lamps.
Labor cost
The labor cost for the Temple of Solomon would be about $1.5 billion in today’s dollars. The reason why it costs so much is that the Temple of Solomon had to be built by hand, without any modern tools.
The work was done by thousands of workers over a period of seven years. This doesn’t include months spent gathering materials and planning, which would add even more time to the project.
The temple took 22,000 tons of stone to build. The stones used in the Temple of Solomon were quarried in Jerusalem and cut by hand into blocks weighing up to 1,500 pounds each.
Maintenance cost
The temple would require extensive maintenance and repair. The structure itself is said to be made of gold, silver and bronze; it would also need constant care to keep it looking new.
The building was large and complex, requiring many skilled workers who would have required compensation for their time.
Based on historical records from the period of Solomon’s temple, it cost approximately $15 billion annually just to maintain one temple (the one built by King Solomon). This is equivalent to $203 billion per year today with inflation factored in.
The Bible also provides us with a detailed description of the temple’s outer appearance. It is described as having columns that were made of gold, silver and bronze; it was decorated with precious stones; and it had a large courtyard enclosed by walls. The building itself was very large approximately 1,000 feet long by 600 feet wide by 150 feet high (305 m x 183 m x 45 m). This would make it one of the largest buildings in ancient times, requiring an immense amount of material for construction.
The total cost of just the materials to build Solomon’s Temple would be about $8 billion today.
The total cost of just the materials to build Solomon’s Temple would be about $8 billion today. This is the cost of materials alone, not including labor. This is a rough estimate based on the cost of materials and labor in the year 2000 when I built my house in Canada.
If you include all costs, labor, building materials, etc. the total comes out to around $20 billion dollars.
But this is just a rough estimate. It would be very difficult to determine the exact cost today because there are so many variables in play:
If we built Solomon’s Temple today it would cost a lot of money
In today’s money, the Temple of Solomon would cost over $8 billion.
This is a lot more than the other temples mentioned earlier in this article, because it was by far the largest of them all. The Temple of Solomon is also the most expensive building ever built: The construction costs alone were somewhere between $1 and $10 billion dollars (which translates to around $16-$160 billion today).
However, the Temple of Solomon is also the most expensive building ever built: The construction costs alone were somewhere between $1 and $10 billion dollars (which translates to around $16-$160 billion today).
The temple was a magnificent structure, and it was built to last. The materials used were all of the highest quality, and there was no expense spared in making sure everything was perfect. If Solomon had access to the same resources today that he did then we would be able to replicate his temple with little trouble. The total cost would be around $8 billion dollars which is still less than some private schools or hospitals cost today.
