And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.
There was neither hammer, nor ax, nor any tool of iron heard in the house. A subterranean quarry has been very recently discovered near Jerusalem, where the temple stones are supposed to have been hewn. There is unequivocal evidence to be found in this quarry that the stones were dressed there, because there are blocks exactly similar in size, as well as in the nature of the stone, to the ancient remains. Thence probably they would be moved on rollers down the Tyropean valley to the very side of the temple. The discovery of the great quarry under Bezetha has shown that these immense stones were excavated, hewn, and fully prepared on the spot, whence they were conveyed on trucks or on rollers down the gently-inclined plane to the site chosen for the temple. [See a full and graphic narrative of it in Barclay's, 'City of the Great King,' pp. 118, 458-468; Drew's 'Scripture Lands,' p. 152, note; Dupin's 'Holy Places;' Porter's 'Handbook,' pp. 112-132, 265-267; 'Tent and Khan,' pp. 273, 274).]
`No workman's steel, no ponderous axes rang. Like some tall palm the noiseless fabric sprang.'