Background

The pilgrimage obligation in Judaism derives from the commandment to visit the Temple in Jerusalem “three times a year” (Ex. 23, 17; Deut. 16, 16) on the three festivals: “on the Feast of Unleavened Bread, on the Feast of Weeks, and on the Feast of Booths” (Deut. 16, 16). Historiographical compositions from the Second Temple period and rabbinic sources describe the actual observance of this precept: Many pilgrims came to Jerusalem from all over Palestine and abroad - from Judea, the Galilee, Transjordan, and the Diaspora, on land and on sea. For example, this is how Philo of Alexandria describes this special event:

Countless multitudes from countless cities come, some over land, others by sea, from east and west and north and south at every feast. They take the temple for their port as a general haven and safe refuge from the bustle and great turmoil of life, and there they seek to find calm weather, and, released from the cares whose yoke has been heavy upon them from their earliest years, to enjoy a brief breathing space in scenes of genial cheerfulness (Spec. Leg. 1.70).

Jews had to prepare themselves anew before every pilgrimage. Although it is true that for the Jews of Palestine the preparations were less burdensome than for those who lived farther away due to their proximity to Jerusalem and the obligation to make the pilgrimage three times a year (Safrai 1965), for the Jews of the Diaspora, some of whom visited the Temple only once in their lifetimes (Safrai 1960, 1965), the pilgrimage entailed lengthy spiritual and material preparations that sometimes lasted several years before the day they finally ascended to the Temple (see Fig. 1). These preparations were essential for a journey whose purpose was entirely spiritual, and the exaltation attained was greatly dependent on them. Only after the appropriate preparations were made could pilgrims set out, as the journey was more than a routine trip from one place to another. It was a journey to the Holy of Holies, to the Temple. This made the entire trip, from the very first step, a ceremonial ritual in which participants ascended from the profane to the sacred.

Given the importance of pilgrimage to the religious lives of Jews in ancient times, it should come as no surprise that the Jewish pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the Second Temple period is far from a new topic in research, even if much of the academic output consists of only short references made in passing or an aside to other topics. In fact, most previous research has focused on either religious history or archaeological research. The former approach is usually based on textual evidence, especially the Bible, Josephus, and rabbinic sources (Safrai 1965; Dyma 2009), while the latter concerns limited-in-scale excavations on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount (Mazar 2002). At the same time, topographical aspects of the pilgrimage to Jerusalem have largely been neglected and, to the best of our knowledge, no detailed anthropological study on Jewish pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the Second Temple period has ever been published. In this light, this study will offer a unique perspective by adding both geographical and anthropological approaches to the standard methodologies based on textual and archaeological data.

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Location of the study area

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Pilgrimage as a rite of passage

The term “rites of passage” was coined by Van Gennep (1960), who defined them as “rites which accompany every change of place, state, social position and age”. He demonstrated that every rite of passage or “transition” consists of three stages: separation (preliminal), transition (liminal), and reintegration (postliminal).

This idea was further developed by Turner (Turner 1969, 1974; Turner and Turner 1978), who added pilgrimage to the definition of rites of passage. He observed that pilgrimages comprise all three stages mentioned above, as we shall show below.Footnote 1

Pilgrimage begins with separation from the familiar and routine social structure, a process that occurs even before the start of the journey to the holy site. Turner assigned the actual journey to the liminal stage because the permanent rules of the social order are abrogated during the journey, effectively placing pilgrims outside of time and place. The journey ends with the arrival at the sacred site, where the normal social structure is restored. Thus, a pilgrimage parallels the stages of the rite of passage - the departure is the separation, the journey is the liminal stage, and the arrival at the sanctified site is the reintegration.Footnote 2

This study focuses on pilgrimage during the Second Temple Period; as mentioned, it uses the idea of the rite of passage, as well as archaeological findings and the historical text sources available to us, to recreate these stages during the pilgrimages to the Temple from the second century BCE until its destruction in 70 CE.

Stage 1: separation

The separation stage is that of the preparations that inaugurate the rite of passage. In order to go on the pilgrimage, people break away from their normal role in the social order, their safe space, and their privacy. En route to their destination, they must link up with the new group they will walk with until their journey is accomplished. In the case of pilgrimage to the Second Temple, the preparations were on two main levels: the public and the private. While Jerusalem and its environs geared up to absorb the host of pilgrims, the pilgrims prepared themselves physically and spiritually.

In advance of every festival, the residents of Jerusalem had to make preparations for the arrival of the throngs who came from all over Palestine and the rest of the world. This involved complex logistics in and around the city. Some of these preparations, connected mainly to the halakhic aspects, are described in the rabbinic literature, but we can only conjecture about the vast majority.

One of the most important sources we have is the Mishnah in Tractate Shekalim that describes the preparations for Passover:

On the first day of Adar they give warning of the Shekel dues and against [the sowing of] Diverse Kinds. On the 15th thereof they read the Megillah in walled cities and repair the paths and roads and pools of water and perform all public needs and mark the graves; and they also go forth [to give warning] against Diverse Kinds (M Shekalim 1, 1).

The Tosefta explains why these repairs were necessary:

On the fifteenth day of [Adar], emissaries of the court go out and repair the roads and the plazas which have become damaged during the rainy season so that they will be in usable condition on these three festivals (M Shekalim 1, 1).

According to these sources, many preparations were needed in Jerusalem before the pilgrims arrived: the roads leading to the city were repaired, the water systems (for drinking and ritual purification)Footnote 3 were fixed, and graves were marked so that pilgrims would not step on them and become impure. The numerous preparations, and the fact that they were repeated every year, allow us to investigate the theory that the pilgrims walked on permanent paths that were built and maintained especially for them.

Once all their preparations were complete, the pilgrims from all the nearby towns would assemble in a central city, what the Mishnah designates “the town of the Maamad.” Then they set out on the journey, led by a guide referred to as “the officer” (M Bikkurim 3, 3).

Stage 2: Liminality

When the separation was complete and they set out on the road, the pilgrims began the long transitional period or “liminal stage.” “Liminality” refers to a threshold state of “betwixt and between.” It is governed by a different order and rules than the normal social structure, rules that are sometimes the opposite of those of the normal structure. The dominant feeling of those on the threshold is one of uncertainty, along with waiting and anticipation, because the liminal stage is not time-limited and may be protracted. Those in a liminal stage compose a “liminal entity”; they are on a threshold, separated from their homes, their sources of power, and their status. They have no possessions, badges of rank, or anything else to distinguish them from one another. Turner described the process they experience very well: “[Liminal entities’] behavior is normally passive or humble; they must obey their instructors implicitly, and accept arbitrary punishment without complaint. It is as though they are being reduced or ground down to a uniform condition to be fashioned anew and endowed with additional powers to enable them to cope with their new station in life” (Turner 1969).

When the pilgrims left their homes and joined the caravan, they became a liminal entity that accrued energy along the way in order to deal with the new situation they would encounter when they reached the Temple. The caravan was led by a person whom the Mishnah calls “the officer” (M Bikkurim 3, 2). Its progress was dictated by ceremonial and practical symbols that urged it forward and propelled its members towards the objective: “Before them went the ox.… The flute was played before them until they drew nigh to Jerusalem” (M Bikkurim 3, 3–4). The flute and the ox reminded the pilgrims of the purpose for which they had left their homes, set the pace of their journey, and maintained morale. Having joined the caravan, they were passive participants, directed and managed by others.

In addition to the separation and alienation that characterized the liminal entity, Turner noted the transition to a new state of consciousness associated with the liminal individuals who found themselves in an identical state—a communal mindset he designated communitas. This state refers to the temporary group created by the liminal individuals. This communitas is based on equality among its members and on positive values (friendship, mutual assistance, spontaneity, and the like) rather than hierarchy (Douglas 1984), as the group admits no distinctions of status or gender. In this community, the pilgrims developed a sense of fraternity and equality, and differences of social rank and status evaporated away. This is clearly reflected in the Mishnah: “When they reached the Temple Mount even Agrippa the king would take his basket on his shoulder and enter in as far as the Temple Court” (M Bikkurim 3, 4). The procession behind the ox, with the pace set by the flute, tempered the pride of the elite and turned the walkers into a single unified group.Footnote 4 Josephus described a similar situation as follows:

Let them come together three times a year from the ends of the land that the Hebrews conquer, into the city in which they establish the Temple, in order that they may give thanks to God for the benefits that they have received and that they may appeal for benefits for the nature and coming together and taking a common meal, may they be dear to each other. For it is well that they not be ignorant of one another, being compatriots [ὁµόφυλοι] and sharing in the same practices. This will occur for them through such intermingling, instilling a memory of them through sight and association, for if they remain unmixed with one another they will be thought completely strangers to each other (Ant. 4:203–204).

What the pilgrims shared was greater than what divided them. For example, their meals, like the eating of the paschal sacrifice, were apparently taken in communion (Nodet 1995; Feldman 2000, 2006), and the ritual purity they all maintained completely dismantled the religious barriers between them: The rest of the year, those who were strict about their ritual purity isolated themselves from the others. As described in the Talmud, the ḥaverim who avoided impurity kept their distance from those presumed to be impure, the ammei ha’aretz; but during the pilgrimage festivals, “all of Israel was assumed to be pure.”Footnote 5

The road to Jerusalem was difficult, long, and full of hardships, and this naturally created unity in the communitas. The shared ideal blurred any differences that might have remained among them and melded them all into a homogeneous group that combined humility with holiness. In practice, only the process of breaking free from every social status and creating a new and special status can enable progress towards the culmination of the journey and reintegration.Footnote 6

Stage 3: reintegration

When the pilgrims reached their destination, the last stage in the rite of passage, which completed the ceremony, began. This stage created a new social status to replace the communitas. The participant in the ceremony, the individual, returned to a stable state and was again subject to a system of obligations and rights vis-à-vis the other pilgrims. These rights and obligations were defined by law, with a structural character that dictated how they must behave, in keeping with the norm for each pilgrim’s condition and status.

In our case, the new status that replaced the liminal stage was created when the journey was over and the pilgrim reached the Temple.Footnote 7 At that moment, the system of rules that defined the boundaries of the obligations and rights of each status reasserted itself. The Priests and Levites had a different status than the rest of the people, which was expressed physically, among other aspects, through the different restrictions on their access to the areas of the sacred compound. Class affiliation determined whether pilgrims had to immerse themselves in a ritual bath before entering the sacred precinct,Footnote 8 which side they were to enter from,Footnote 9 where they could go, what they should wear or bring as an offering, how they should behave, and other essentials. The act of pilgrimage had repercussions after the ceremony itself; it could be that, as among Muslims, it endowed pilgrims with a higher status and more honored position in their towns after they returned home.Footnote 10

Due to space limitations, we cannot address the ceremony that took place on the Temple Mount itself. Our discussion is limited to an examination of the journey to Jerusalem and the assertion that the journey itself constituted and reflected the preparation for the climax—the arrival at the Temple.

The road to the holy site

The basis of this discussion is the ceremonial road. According to Turner, a key element of a ceremonial road is that it is constructed gradually. At the beginning of the road, pilgrims expect to encounter everyday scenes devoid of any element of holiness. As the road continues and the pilgrims move closer to their destination, sacred and awe-inspiring symbols begin to appear. In the last stages of the journey, the road itself becomes holy and mythic, such that every milestone and step is a powerfully meaningful symbol that can and is intended to inspire many sentiments, desires, and longings (Turner 1974). Studies of the pilgrimage phenomenon reflect the exaltation that stems from the physical motion of walking towards the shrine (Morinis 1992; see also Coleman and Eade 2004; Urry and Larsen 2011). The pilgrimage experience is shaped, and these feelings of emotional stimulation and holiness are aroused, only by means of what acts directly on the senses and also indirectly on the pilgrim’s emotions, memories, and beliefs. Urry and Larsen point out that architecture has a significant influence on visitors who encounter and gaze at it for the first time (Urry and Larsen 2011). The connection between the liturgical format on the one hand and the pilgrims’ imagination and memory on the other inspires them with feelings that influence their movements and attitude towards the ceremony (Coleman and Eade 2004). The sight of elaborate and impressive buildings and passage in front of sites with a holy or historic character inspire pilgrims with the desired emotions. The physical aspect of walking on a road that twists and turns and goes up and down reinforces the appropriate emotional state.Footnote 11 It is also strengthened by the changing walking pace; as the pilgrims draw closer to the shrine, their pace slackens, building up the emotional tension before they arrive at the destination.Footnote 12

The last lap of the journey is experienced collectively. The roads by which the pilgrims arrive merge, and they all walk together. From this point near the holy site, a fixed and well-known road leads to the destination (Turner 1974; see also Nolan and Nolan 1989). This ceremonial road is not necessarily the shortest or most convenient route, but rather the most symbolic one, with symbolic stations and cultic sites (Turner and Turner 1978; see also Wooding 2013; Coleman and Eade 2004). Pilgrimage sites that suit this model include the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, Santiago de Compostela in Spain, and Pandharpur in India. In the case of Jerusalem, as can be seen on a purely topographic simulation of approaches towards the Temple Mount (see Fig. 2), none of the approaches from four main directions (from the north via Mt. Scopus, from Jericho in the east via Mt. of Olives, from the south coming from the Hebron direction, and from the west coming from the Jaffa direction) attempt to climb the Temple Mount up from the south. This simulation uses a GIS method known as “the least cost path (LCPs)” which determines the route over a surface between two or more locations that has the least cost accumulated along the way. To calculate LCPs in GIS software we used SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission version 4) global model with a resolution of 1-arc second (Jarvis et al., 2008) which is about 26.5 × 30 m at this latitude. The definition of cost may vary; in our case, the cost is based on terrain slope. The cost assumption is simple: the larger the slope, the longer the route, and the more elevation differences, the greater the cost of travel. Costs are expressed in unmetered units and can be compared with each other on a relative basis (see Table 1). Clearly, the physical effort of traversing the Kidron Valley and then climbing up the City of David and the Temple Mount would have been too high to undertake solely on topographic grounds.

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Least cost paths (LCPs) from main directions to the Temple Mount

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Table 1 Basic quantity parameters of the LCPs
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This model enables us to consider the possibility that also during the Second Temple period, pilgrims who arrived from all over Palestine and the Diaspora took different roads until they reached a central junction, after which they marched ceremonially to the Temple. Such a ceremonial road would have been near the Temple; its physical parameters would have had to reinforce the ritual experience of those walking along it as a slowly increasing sense of exaltation. Our proposal, based in part on the archaeology and topography of Jerusalem, is that many secondary roads throughout the country eventually merged into two main roads that led into the city. One reached the city from the north, passing through the Kidron Valley, while the other reached the city from the west by way of the Hinnom Valley (Fig. 3). On both routes, the descent towards the city is moderate and easy, and the path is wide enough for many people to walk side by side. Of course, the other roads to Jerusalem, as well as these two, were used throughout the year. However, as we shall show, during the three festivals, these two roads took on special importance because of their special winding path, marked by multiple ritual symbols, which helped intensify the pilgrims’ sense of anticipation and awe. As we will demonstrate, these two routes through the Kidron and Hinnom valleys met at the southern entrance to Jerusalem and merged into a single symbolic, monumental, and sacred path that led all pilgrims to the Temple Mount and the Temple.

Fig. 3
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The reconstruction of the pilgrimage route to the Temple Mount (including the location of regular and monumental tombs around the city)

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The eastern route as an example of ritual symbolism

Before we discuss the road between the southern entrance to the city and the Temple, we should examine the route from Jericho to Jerusalem and show how it gained increasing holiness as it drew nearer to the city. It is important to note that only pilgrims who arrived from the north and the east took this road; those who came from the south and west descended from the modern Hebron Road (the ridge extending from the Hill of Evil Counsel to Abu Tor) and from Gaza Road and Jaffa Road to the Hinnom Valley en route to the city.

The first route begins in the Jericho plain and traverses the Judean Desert. The pilgrims who took this path climbed a moderate ascent that crossed many kilometers in the desert. When they reached the beginning of the steep ascent leading towards the Mt. of Olives from Bethany (the modern village of al-Azariya), the sacred symbols began to overwhelm them. The first significant change that pilgrims arriving in Jerusalem from the east would see relates to the landscape and topography: from the monotone desert to the variegated colors of a populated hilly area, and from an easy gradient to a steep slope. This road from the east is described in some detail in the narrative of Jesus’ final journey to Jerusalem: “As they approached Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives…”Footnote 13

From there, pilgrims arriving from the east would continue towards the western slope of the Mt. of Olives, itself a location with deep symbolic meaning for Jews of the Second Temple period. This was where the red heifer was burntFootnote 14 and where torches were lit to announce to the communities of the Diaspora that a new month had been proclaimed (M Rosh Hashanah 2, 4). What is more, from the Mt. of Olives the pilgrims would have seen, for the first time since they began their journey, a splendid view of the city, the Temple Mount compound, and the Temple in all its glory (Fig. 4).

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View of the Temple Mount and the Kidron Valley from the Mt. of Olives

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From the Mt. of Olives, the path descended, according to our proposal, towards the Kidron Valley. The Kidron runs parallel to the eastern wall of the Temple Mount, from north to south. This is where pilgrims coming from the east met the caravans from the north, after which they walked together towards the southern gate of the city.

The slopes of the Kidron are pocked with many burial caves and impressive burial structures from the First and Second Temple periods.

In their discussion of the pilgrimage roads in the eastern Lower Galilee, Tepper and Tepper noted that, starting in the Roman period, many monumental tombs were hewn from the rock or built alongside the roads that led out of settlements (Tepper and Tepper 2011). The fact that Jerusalem is surrounded by graves on every side has been known for many years,Footnote 15 but no attempt has yet been made to associate the monumental tombs surrounding the city with the course of the roads to Jerusalem. For example, the most likely associations are between the Tombs of the Kings and the monumental tomb built in the opus reticulatum style near the Damascus Gate with the northern approach road,Footnote 16 and the monumental tombs in Sanhedria with the road from the west. Similarly, it is possible to associate the monumental tombs along the Kidron Valley with the road to Jerusalem from the north and the east, as we will show below.

Burial alongside a road leading to a city is not a uniquely Jewish phenomenon. Many examples can be cited from the Greco-Roman world, including along the roads leading to Rome (Nash 1962; see also Toynbee 1971; Stevens 2017), Athens (Knigge 1991), and other cities. A further example closer to Jerusalem is Petra (McKenzie 1990). The entrance road to that city is jammed with extraordinary tombs; it is impossible to enter the city without seeing and being amazed by them (see Fig. 5).

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Obelisk Tomb in Petra along the entrance road

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A hint at the proximity of tombs to the roads leading to Jerusalem can be found in the Mishnah: “On the 15th [of Adar] they read the Megillah in walled cities and repair the paths and roads … and mark the graves.”Footnote 17 It is also likely that the reference made by Jesus to whitewashed tombs “which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean,” mentioned in Matt 23:27 (NIV) in the context of Jesus’ visit to Jerusalem on Passover, is inspired by the presence of the monumental tombs around Jerusalem in his times (Wright 2017).

The Kidron valley tombs and their symbolic meaning

The monumental tombs in the Kidron Valley are among the largest and most ornate still standing in the country. They include Absalom’s Pillar, the Tomb of the Sons of Hezir, and Zechariah’s Tomb, which date to the late Hellenistic and early Roman periods (Figs. 6 and 7) (Avigad 1954). Research into these structures has dealt primarily with their architecture and appearance,Footnote 18 overlooking the meaning of their spatial location and topographical placement. However, the decision to build them at the bottom of the Kidron is quite astonishing because they are not visible from the city or the surrounding hills.Footnote 19 This striking phenomenon can be objectively illustrated using a GIS method known as viewshed analysis. Viewshed analysis determines which locations are visible from a selected viewpoint. Figure 8A shows which locations are visible from the Kidron tombs, while Fig. 8B demonstrates from which locations the aforementioned tombs can be seen. In both cases, the height of the observation points was chosen as 1.75 m above the level of the surface to match the height of an adult human. Apparently, the tombs cannot be seen from the city of Jerusalem, and their visibility is limited mainly to the Kidron Valley itself, as well as the most eastern slopes of Mt. Olives and the Silwan hills south of Jerusalem.

Fig. 6
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The Kidron Tombs (from left to right: Absalom’s Pillar, the Tomb of the Sons of Hezir, and Zechariah’s Tomb)

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Fig. 7
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Location of the Kidron Tombs relative to the Temple Mount (the red arrow points to the viewpoint of Fig. 6)

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Fig. 8
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A viewshed area: A - total area visible from the Kidron Tombs; B - an area from which the Kidron Tombs are visible

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Why, then, did their builders construct them here? Why did they invest in building an ornate but inaccessible tomb? Our identification of the Kidron as a main pilgrimage route resolves these questions. If such an important road to the city did not pass through the valley, these monuments would have only had a marginal role to play, and the huge investment in their construction would be difficult to understand.

Monumental graves were and continue to be built in order to transmit a message to those who encounter them—of power, control, and wealth. Those buried in them, who were presumably important persons—members of a wealthy family or possibly rulers eager to make a show of their power—were aware that multitudes passed through the Kidron Valley on every festival, and accordingly chose to have impressive tombs hewn from the stone there to amaze the pilgrims with their size and ornamentation and inspire awe for the place and the deceased buried there.Footnote 20 Further down the Kidron Valley, in Silwan, there are more tombs of symbolic significance that belonged to the Jerusalem elite of the First Temple period (as attested by rabbinic texts, Josephus’ references to the tombs of David and Hulda the prophetess, the burial inscription of King Uzziah (Sukenik 1931), and other inscriptions on the lintels of the tombs (Avigad 1954; see also Ussishkin 1970). These tombs were endowed with additional sanctity because they symbolized the splendor of the Davidic kingdom and the eminence of Jerusalem.

The entrance to the city

In their excavations in the City of David, Frederick Jones Bliss and Archibald Campbell Dickie identified a gate (see Fig. 9) with an attached tower to its east at the southern end of the central valley through Jerusalem (the Tyropoeon) (Bliss and Dickie 1898). The gate was at the southern limit of Second Temple Jerusalem, at the point where the wall, descending eastward from Mt. Zion, turns north up the Kidron Valley. Below the gate was the southern outlet of the major large drainage channel that ran down the Tyropoeon under the paved street. The remains of the gate are the inner angles of the wall, the left inside wall of the opening, and the flights of stairs climbing up to the gate. One side of the gate, which is also the southeastern corner of the city ramparts, was protected by a rectangular tower measuring 14.3 × 4.6 m. Most of its foundation stones were ashlars, in two different styles—a layer of rough construction under a layer of finely hewn stones; the excavators made special note of the quality of construction (Reich and Shukrun 2007). Three stages of construction were identified, but they have not been satisfactorily dated. Reich and Shukron conjectured that the gate was first built as part of the Hasmonean fortification, when the city was enlarged towards the west, and was used from that time until the city was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE.Footnote 21

Fig. 9
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Bliss and Dickie’s sketch plan of the city gate

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The gate is located at the southernmost edge of the city, close to the Pool of Siloam; this seems to be the only area of the city where a gate can clearly be dated to the Second Temple period.Footnote 22 Although it is obvious that there were other gates, like the Ginat Gate and the one opposite Queen Helena’s monument (Reich and Shukrun 2010; 2011; Marciak 2014: 139–143; War 5:55; 5:119; 5:147), it is somewhat unexpected to find a gate at this point because its location is less convenient and accessible than other parts of the city. It stands at the lowest point of the walls, and the only routes that lead towards it run through the valleys that surround the city -the Kidron and Hinnom. The realization that the gate was part of the pilgrimage system and that the pilgrims’ ceremonial path passed through it helps resolve this issue. Furthermore, the fact that the gate is located near the large and magnificent Siloam pool and at the bottom of a monumental street that leads to the southern gates of the Temple Mount supports this proposal, identifying the southern gate as the starting line of the ceremonial route on which all pilgrims entered the city and proceeded towards the Temple.

The pool of Siloam and the stepped street

Those who passed through the southern gate described above encountered an impressive view of the Pool of Siloam. In 2004, Reich and Shukron uncovered part of a large rectangular pool at the southern edge of the City of David. They proposed that the pool was installed late in the Second Temple period on top of a building from the late Hellenistic period (Fig. 10).Footnote 23

Fig. 10
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Masonry of the Pool of Siloam

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Reich identified the site, known in Arabic as the “al-Hamara” pool, as the Pool of Siloam mentioned in texts from the Second Temple period. The site’s centrality and importance are undeniable: it is large and elaborate, with a broad staircase on all sides and a paved promenade with a royal stoa adjacent to it. This structure was one of the emblematic and holy structures that pilgrims beheld. It is evident from the rabbinic literature that pilgrim caravans passed by the Pool of Siloam. The Palestinian Talmud asks about the place from which pilgrims were considered to begin their ascent to the Temple Mount: “From where do you measure? From the wall or from the houses? Samuel taught: from the Siloam” (J Hagigah 3b) The sources link the Pool of Siloam to a long series of customs and rituals that are part of the Temple service and pilgrimage ceremony. The Mishnah recounts the water libation ceremony on the Feast of Tabernacles: “‘The Water-libation, seven days’ — what was the manner of this? They used to fill a golden flagon holding three logs with water from Siloam” (M Sukkah 4, 9) Water from the Siloam Pool was also used to prepare the “sin-offering water” for purifying those people who were ritually impure due to contact with a corpse.Footnote 24 These ceremonies demonstrate the pool’s importance for the Temple cult and its symbolic importance for the pilgrims who passed by it.Footnote 25 Likewise, the Gospel of John places one of Jesus’ most important miracles, the restoration of sight to a man born blind, at the Pool of Siloam (John 9:1–41; Phillips 2017).

There is a disagreement in the Mishnah about the age at which a child is obligated to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem: “Who is deemed a child [and thus exempt from pilgrimage]? Any that cannot ride on his father’s shoulders and go up from Jerusalem to the Temple Mount. So the School of Shammai. And the School of Hillel say: Any that cannot hold his father’s hand and go up [on his feet] from Jerusalem to the Temple Mount” (M Hagigah 1, 1). Both schools agree, however, that pilgrims must go up from Jerusalem to the Temple Mount, so our search for the pilgrimage route must focus on places from which it was possible to ascend to the Mount, which is something of a problem given that the Temple Mount is the lowest hill inside the city (Fig. 11). In addition, the road we are looking for must be impressive and broad enough to accommodate thousands of pilgrims.

Fig. 11
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Hills and their heights in the vicinity of Jerusalem

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Ascension to a temple, usually on staircases, is a well-known phenomenon throughout the world. Hollinshead found that many temples in the Greco-Roman world, including very well preserved examples at Corinth, Labraunda, Lindos, Kos, Perachora, Argos, Pergamon, and Knidos, were reached by a stepped processional road from a nearby city.Footnote 26 Such roads usually consisted of broad stairs that served a double goal: they enabled better control over those climbing them; and they intensified worshippers’ experience of the physical ascent, focusing their attention on their sacred destination and heightening their sense of expectation and exaltation. Bliss and Dickie seem to have uncovered such a road in Jerusalem (Bliss and Dickie 1898). They exposed eighteen pairs of stairs near the top of the western slope of the Tyropoeon Valley. The southern end of the street was dug again by Reich and Shukrun (2010) and is still being excavated by N. Szanton and J. Uziel (2016). To date, a stretch of more than 90 m has been excavated (see Fig. 12); it is currently dated to the time of the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate in the first century CE (Szanton et al. 2017). The width of the stepped street varies: 35 m at the start, it narrows to 25 m in the middle section and expands to 80 m just outside the gates of the Temple Mount. The steps are built in a special manner, with alternate narrow and deep treads.Footnote 27 The length of the entire street, from the Pool of Siloam to the Temple Mount, is about 600 m. Shops and stalls were located along the sides.Footnote 28 In light of the evidence, the street was one of the most important streets in the city; Reich and Shukron did suggest that it was used by pilgrims, but did not go into further detail (Reich and Shukrun 2007; 2011b). We suggest, in accordance with the accepted view, that not only did the stairs make the street more impressive, but they also made it difficult for the pilgrims to progress rapidly and filled them with a sense of awe and exhilaration. This role suits the sanctity and symbolism of a road that leads pilgrims to the southern gates of the Temple Mount and thence into the Temple Mount itself.

Fig. 12
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Section of the stepped processional road in Jerusalem

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The archaeological findings indicate that the stepped street and the drainage canal under it were not built until around the middle of the first century CE (Reich and Shukrun 2010; see also Szanton et al. 2019). However, this does not rule out the possibility that there was an earlier road for pilgrimage processions that followed the same course, and that the stepped street was only a renovation that was part of the broader program of reconstruction of the Temple complex that began under Herod and continued until the middle of the first century CE.Footnote 29 It is also possible that during the rest of the year, the pilgrims’ road was used for daily life and commerce in Jerusalem.

The Hulda gates

The steps climbed by the pilgrims ended in a long and narrow plaza measuring 280 × 6.6 m, located below the southern wall of the Temple Mount, called the Hulda Gates Plaza (see Figs. 13 and 14) (Ben-Dov 1985). On both sides were staircases that led to the center of the southern wall of the Temple Mount, to the entrance gates to the Mount (the Triple Gate and the Double Gate), which are 70 m apart (Mazar 2002). The Mishnah supports the idea that pilgrims entered the Temple Mount through these gates: “There were five gates to the Temple Mount: the two Huldah Gates on the south, that served for coming in and for going out.”Footnote 30Although the Mishnah goes on to say that there was also an entry and exit gate on the west—“the Kiponus Gate on the west, that served for coming in and for going out” (M Middoth 1, 3) - this does not contradict the assertion that the main road to the Temple Mount ran south to north because the western approach, which reached the Temple Mount via Robinson’s Arch, also required climbing stairs from the south, and some hypothetical reconstructions of the Temple Mount assert that this gate led to the Royal Stoa on the southern edge of the Mount (Peleg-Barkat 2011). Although there is no entrance to the Temple Mount from the southern wall today, there are remains of the blocked-up gates (Mazar 2002). Alongside the southern wall plaza, below street level, dozens of ritual baths of various sizes were built, evidently so that pilgrims could immerse themselves before entering the Mount (Regev 2005). Entry from the Hulda Gates to the Temple Mount, which is 14 m above them, was through ornate underground passageways that ran through the vaults under the Temple Mount plaza beneath the Royal Stoa. These passages survived in part until the present in what is known as Solomon’s Stables, under the al-Aqsa Mosque, and have been dated to the Herodian period (Peleg-Barkat 2011).

Fig. 13
figure 13

Top left: the Double Gate; Top right: the Triple Gate, below the Hulda Gates Plaza with graphics marking the locations of the aforementioned gates (from the mapping system of the Jerusalem Municipality: https://www.jerusalem.muni.il/he/residents/planningandbuilding/gis-jerusalem/)

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Fig. 14
figure 14

View of the Temple Mount from the south with a reconstruction of the roads to the Hulda Gates and the Temple Mount (from the mapping system of the Jerusalem Municipality: https://www.jerusalem.muni.il/he/residents/planningandbuilding/gis-jerusalem/)

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Discussion

The archaeological finds along the route described in this article, which leads into the city and the Temple from the south, support the assertion that the pilgrims’ road reached the city from the south: if it came instead from the west, all of the monuments and the extraordinary planning along this itinerary would have been relatively marginal and the investment in them would be more difficult to comprehend. However, we are still left with the question of the logic behind this route. It runs southward and does not lead to the convenient entries to the city used for most of its history- the Damascus Gate in the north and the Jaffa Gate in the west.Footnote 31 Moreover, instead of reaching the city along an easy and comfortable path from the north or east, the pilgrims had to continue downhill towards the city’s southern gate, located at the lowest point in the entire area. After this, they would have had to expend significant energy to climb back up to the Temple Mount. Our GIS reconstruction (see Fig. 15; Table 2) of the least cost paths between the main directions of the approaches to Jerusalem (from the north via Mt. Scopus, from the east via Mt. Olives, from the south coming from the Hebron direction, and from the west coming from the Jaffa direction) and three archaeologically attested gates of Second Temple Jerusalem indicate that the route to the gate identified by Bliss and Dickie was not the most convenient route for any approach, not even from the south (here, a cost preference points to the western gate). In particular, the approach from the Jaffa direction had very similar costs for the western gate (194.2) and the northern gate (201.1), while the approach towards Bliss and Dickie’s gate was more than twice as costly (525.7). Likewise, the approach from the Hebron direction towards the gate identified by Bliss and Dickie was more costly (397.6) than towards the northern gate (300.6), not to mention the route to the western gate (192.6). The approach from Mt. Scopus obviously tended towards the northern gate (a cost of 334.4 versus 559.2 towards the southern gate and 589.4 towards the western gate), as did the approach from the Mt. of Olives (a cost of 356.9 compared to 412.9 towards Bliss and Campbell Dickie’s gate and 634.7 towards the western gate). Thus, the approach towards Bliss and Campbell Dickie’s gate was more convenient only when compared with taking huge detours from Mt. Scopus and Mt. of Olives to the western gate.

Fig. 15
figure 15

LCPs from main directions to the three gates

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Table 2 Basic quantity parameters of the LCPs
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Jerusalem of the late Second Temple period was not merely another Roman polis or capital—it was a temple city;Footnote 32 as such, its entire purpose was the Temple on the Temple Mount. The main road in Jerusalem was the road to the Temple Mount, especially on the three festivals, when this vocation was accented. For this reason, we should consider the route of this road from a symbolic and ceremonial perspective and not only a functional one.

To understand the logic behind having pilgrims enter Jerusalem from the south, we must think of the road that enters the city from that direction as a “ceremonial road” that leads to the holy site. Unlike regular roads, which people use to move from place to place, ceremonial roads are designed to serve the pilgrimage ritual and accomplish the transition from the profane to the sacred. As Turner explained, the pilgrimage ceremony does not start with the arrival at the temple, but rather much earlier, when the pilgrims leave their homes and familiar surroundings and venture forth on their journey; it concludes only when they arrive at the shrine (Turner 1974). According to Turner, during the journey between these two points, the pilgrims are in an intermediate, liminal state, on the threshold between their previous state and the new state. This state is accompanied by a strong sense of uncertainty, waiting, and expectation, as the pilgrims do not know how long the liminal state will last and what their journey will bring. In this intermediate state, the physical and visual elements along the road can exert a strong influence on the pilgrims’ emotions. Thus, if the designers of a cultic site and its access roads did their work correctly by entwining all the bodily senses with the movement of the pilgrims and their encounters with sacred landscapes, objects, and materials, the road traveled by the pilgrims would have its own sacred power and become part of the ritual itself. It could therefore build and intensify their sense of anticipation and excitement as they made their way to their sacred destination (Skousen 2018: 265).

One of the road’s most effective methods of priming the faithful’s expectations and sense of exaltation was through its physical parameters, which depended on how the route was planned. Towards the end, for example, the road could intentionally twist and turn, as the ascent to the Temple of Apollo in Delphi and the narrow switchback road to Petra do. This design is preferable to a moderate and easily negotiated ascent because it intensifies the pilgrims’ excitement and anticipation and prepares them for the moment of true exultation at the climax of their journey, when they reach the shrine or temple (Morinis 1992; see also Coleman and Eade 2004; Urry and Larsen 2011). A road that climbs from a low starting point to the sacred site is typical of many shrines from antiquity to the present.Footnote 33

In light of all this, it is easy to understand the route of the path that led the pilgrims from the Kidron and Hinnom valleys towards the southern gate of the city (Fig. 3). The physical ascent and descent symbolized the emotional descent and ascent: the descent from all the hills surrounding Jerusalem towards the southern gate, and the ascent from the gate towards the Temple Mount, reflected the spiritual stages the pilgrim experienced to become close to God and the Temple. During the first stage, the pilgrim had to surrender and descend to the lowest, most humble point, and from there ascend up to the Temple. In other words, the physical descent and ascent to the holy site served as a tool for the pilgrims to achieve spiritual exaltation on their journey to the Temple.

To reinforce this point and understand the logic of having pilgrims enter Jerusalem specifically from the south, let us return to the halakhic dispute between Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel about the age at which a child was obligated to make the festival pilgrimage (M Hagigah 1,1). Both schools stress the need for the pilgrims “to go up from Jerusalem to the Temple Mount.”Footnote 34 The emphasis is on “go up,” which is used intentionally and rules out the option of descending to the Temple Mount or reaching it by a level route. If we look at the topography of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, it is clear that there is no place in the city from which it is possible to ascend to the Temple Mount because the Mount is one of the lowest hills in the area. As mentioned above, one of the few from which it is possible to ascend to the Temple Mount is from the south - from the City of David.

The rationale behind the need to actually climb up to the Temple was to increase the intensity of the pilgrims’ emotional experience as they walked the path towards it and fill them with anticipation and excitement about the Temple they would soon be reaching, thereby making them emotionally ready to participate in the cultic ritual. The expedition itself included many stages in addition to the actual journey: raising donations, purification in a ritual bath, traveling together in a caravan, preparing the sacrificial animals and grain offerings, and other steps. The physical dimension of the journey came in addition to these and served the same purpose: in order to ascend in holiness and give the Temple the respect it was due, one had to descend physically and spiritually to a low and humble place, as one could only truly ascend from such a place. When pilgrims enter the holy site, their bodies, too, must feel the effort and desire to ascend. The Mishnaic passages we cited support this idea by referring to the approach from the south, which is the only direction from which it is possible to ascend to the Temple.

The assumption on which this study is based—that the pilgrimage is a rite of passage—explains the entire route. The various points along the route marked different spiritual stages that had to be experienced in order to draw closer to God and the Temple. The pilgrims had to submit and descend to the lowest possible point so that they would be ready to ascend and become holy when the time came: “Liminality implies that the high could not be high unless the low existed, and he who is high must experience what it is like to be low” (Turner 1969). Turner explains the emotional importance of the pilgrimage route in intensifying the ceremonial experience: “The passage from lower to higher status is through a limbo of statuslessness. In such a process, the opposites, as it were, constitute one another and are mutually indispensable” (Turner 1969). Thus, lacking any status, the pilgrims became imbued with reverence, a sense of anticipation, and, primarily, uncertainty, due to the topography of their route. As they entered the city in the late Second Temple period, the pilgrims saw the famous Siloam Pool and the adjacent plaza, slowly climbed the broad stepped street as part of a large throng on alternating broad and narrow risers, impatient to finally arrive at their holy destination. The human dimension of the people of Jerusalem who greeted the pilgrims amplified the physical dimension: “When they had drawn nigh to Jerusalem, they sent messengers before them and bedecked their First-fruits. The rulers and the prefects and the treasurers of the Temple went forth to meet them. According to the honor due to them that came in used they to go forth. And all the craftsmen in Jerusalem used to rise up before them and greet them, saying, ‘Brethren, men of such-and-such a place, ye are welcome!’” (M Bikkurim 3, 3).

Finally, at the conclusion of a long path that produced the requisite state of consciousness, the pilgrims entered the Temple Mount and could take their final steps to the Temple. At the end of the underground passage, the marchers re-emerged into the light, beheld the Temple itself, and realized that the ceremony was over and the process was complete.

Conclusions

The ascent to the Temple during the Second Temple period was in effect a ceremony in its own right, and thus great significance was attached to the route taken. The Jews, who saw Jerusalem as a temple city, designed the road so that the physical path was part of the spiritual path the pilgrims had to traverse. Considerations of convenience were of lesser importance. Urban planning models that may initially seem to be illogical from a functional perspective (a longer rather than a shorter route, an ascent instead of a descent, and so on) enhanced the pilgrims’ spiritual and religious experience and augmented the Temple’s splendor and importance for them.

Victor Turner’s studies of liminality, rites of passage, communitas, and social processes during pilgrimages provide us with tools for analyzing ceremonial structures and symbols located along the pilgrimage road (Turner 1969; 1974; also Turner and Turner 1978). Turner’s approach has already been applied in historical and archaeological studies of the Second Temple period: Feldman represented the pilgrimage as reflecting the splits among the people, especially the Pharisees and Sadducees, during the late Second Temple period (Feldman 2006); Regev (2005) examined immersion in ritual baths during entry to the Temple as a transitional stage.Footnote 35 However, liminality has never before been applied to understand the pilgrimage to the Second Temple in its entirety as a rite of passage. This ceremony, which was practiced by all social groups, included many stages—some of which are known to us, and others that will always remain in the shadows. In this article, we have proposed viewing the pilgrimage route as a physical and spiritual structure of liminality that moves from the lowest to the highest point. In addition to the topography of Jerusalem and its environs, there are monumental structures along the route, including the tombs in the Kidron Valley, the twin southern gates to the city, and the Pool of Siloam. All of these structures gain new meaning when we realize that they are part of a spiritual path in addition to a physical path.

The ceremonial aspect of the transition from the profane to the sacred did not begin when the pilgrims entered the Temple Mount and the gates to the Temple, nor when they entered Jerusalem. It was a process that began the moment the pilgrims left their homes, joined the caravan, and set forth. As they approached the sacred site of the Temple, their emotions grew stronger, and every step was important. The ceremonial process proposed here provides new meaning to the topography and layout of the city during the Second Temple period. The language of Jerusalem is understood as being part of the symbolic language that permeates those who speak it with emotions, sensations, and memories. From this perspective, the perspective of the pilgrims, Jerusalem’s urban planning and the process of pilgrimage to the Temple during the Second Temple period can be seen in a new light.