Solomon's Temple

The blueprint beneath Freemasonry, the Templars' dig site, the once and future obsession.

Solomon's Temple: the First Temple of Jerusalem, destroyed 587 BC, known textually from Kings and Chronicles; direct archaeological access to the Temple Mount is politically impossible, so its remains are unexcavated by agreement. Documented: the site's continuous sanctity, the Templars' headquarters on it (their name, their alleged diggings), and Freemasonry's entire ritual architecture built on its construction myth (Hiram Abiff). The most consequential building that cannot be dug: every order on this map claims its blueprints.