Puzzle No. 96: When?

According to the Hebrew Bible, King Solomon built the First Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, traditionally completing it around 957 BCE (Josephus and the conventional regnal chronology place construction c. 966 to 957 BCE). The Temple housed the Ark of the Covenant and, in biblical theology, became the single legitimate centre of sacrificial worship of YHWH, a focal point that shaped later moves toward centralised, exclusive monotheism. Described as built with Phoenician assistance, cedar from Tyre and craftsmen sent by King Hiram, it also illustrates the close Levantine economic ties of the period. No direct archaeological remains of the structure have been excavated (the site has not been dug), and a minority of scholars question the scale or date of a 10th-century building; nonetheless the Temple's destruction and rebuilding became defining events of Israelite and Jewish history and identity.

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