Several years ago, FaithSearch sponsored a trip to the Holy Land with a group of friends. All present marveled at the massive several-ton stone slabs at the base of the Temple Mount and in building projects throughout Jerusalem. Where they came from? Evidently, we now know.
Recent excavation in northwestern Jerusalem exposed an immense stone quarry which they believe supplied the building materials all the way back to Solomon in the tenth century BC (1 Kings 6:7) and up to the time of Jesus, including the renovation and expansion of the Temple by Herod the Great.
The stone in the quarry matches the stones in the Temple Mount, the “Third Wall,” palaces, and public buildings throughout Jerusalem. Interestingly, they are also of the same size and share the same geological signature as the stones paving the ancient Pilgrimage Road, a thoroughfare recently discovered which connected the Pool of Siloam to the Western Wall (see Happ-O-getics issues 5.4 and 5.5 about this).
Perhaps it was these stones which inspired Peter to use them as an analogy to describe believers as “living stones” being built up as a spiritual house for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (1 Peter 2:4-5).
Source: Biblical Archaeology Review, 51.1 (2025): p. 15.
