The stones of the Har Habayis walls

  In the present-day walls of Har Habayis, there are two types of stones from the time of the Beis Hamikdash, one from the time of the first Beis Hamikdash, and one from the times of Hurdus. The stones are mostly between three and four feet tall (approximately one meter), and around five feet (1.5 meters) thick, but their length has no standard size, with some stones being very short and some being very long. 

   Each course of stones is set back a little from the course under it. This was done to strengthen the wall, since these walls were very tall, up to 100 meters, and had to withstand the pressure of the dirt fill of the Har Habayis. These setbacks are generally between one and a half and two and a half inches (three to six centimeters), while in the east wall, since the wall was taller, (because it started on a lower level,) they are between three and four inches (7 to 10 cm), and in one course, the setback is six inches (15 cm).

​Both the earlier and later stones have marginal drafts, the difference between the two types being that in the Herodian stones, the middle of the stone, the boss, is flat, and only projects from the margins between 1/2 and 1 1/2 centimeters, while in the earlier type of stones, the boss projects much more, and is not flat, but bulges out. The margins are between five and twelve centimeters (around two to five inches), but the top margin is usually wider than the other ones. In the Herodian stone, these margins were created with a chisel that had eight teeth per inch, with was run in a crisscross pattern. The bosses of the Herodian stones also have a sub-margin. 

    When the stones were quarried, the masons left small square projections of about 12 cm (4 in), on either side of the stone. These projections had ropes placed around them, and were used to lift and transport the stones. When the stones were put into the Har Habayis walls, these projections were usually cut off, however sometimes they were left, and you can still see stones in the walls that have these projections.

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One of the stones by the southeast corner with the projection still on

The two types of stones in the Har Habayis walls, to the left, the Herodian stones, and to the right, the Solomonic stones (Oren Rozen, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons)