Early Explorers of the Har Habayis

   The main archeological explorations of the Har Habayis were between the years 1850-1900. Since after the six-day war, excavations were made outside the walls, but no excavations were done inside the walls, and the main information we have about it comes from these early archeologists. In this post, I will give some details about some of these archeologists. 

• Melchior de Vogue was a French diplomat and scholar who visited Yerushalayim in the years 1853 and 1862. During his second visit, he explored parts of the Har Habayis, especially the outer walls and its different styles of masonry. In 1864 he published a book in French about the Har Habayis, called Le Temple de Jérusalem. 
• Captain Charles Wilson was in charge of the ordnance survey of Yerushalayim, which took place in the years 1864-65. He made a detailed map of the whole city, including the Har Habayis and some of its water cisterns. He published this in 1866 (click here for the book).  
• Lieutenant Charles Warren was sent by the Palestine Exploration Fund (a British society founded in 1865 for the exploration of Eretz Yisroel) in 1867 to conduct excavations in Yerushalayim, specifically by the Har Habayis. He dug shafts and tunnels alongside the outer walls of the Har Habayis , and explored different cisterns and areas inside the Har Habayis, together with the help of his assistant, sergeant Henry Birtles. He published the results of his work in The Recovery of Jerusalem, Underground Jerusalem, and in the Jerusalem volume of The Survey of Western Palestine, which he wrote together with Claude Condor. 
• Lieutenant Claude Reignier Condor was sent to Eretz Yisrael in 1872 to take over command of the recently started Survey of Western Palestine from Captain R. W. Stewart, who had become sick and had to go back to England. Condor was in charge of the Survey until 1875, when he had to return to England. During this time, besides for exploring the whole Eretz Yisrael, he also explored parts of the Har Habayis, and made some new discoveries.
• Conrad Schick was a German architect (and missionary) who arrived in Yerushalayim in 1846. He was the architect of some of the major building projects from that time, including Meah Shearim. In 1872 the Turkish authorities wanted to make a model of the Har Habayis, to be displayed by the great exhibition in Vienna, and hired Schick for this job. After this, he made several models of Har Habayis showing how it appeared in different times. He was able to get permission to explore the Har Habayis, and was able to explore many areas that had not been previously explored. (To see his models online, click here.)