Scale chosen was 1:50, so that 2 centimeters on the model represent 1 meter on the ground. This large scale made it possible to avoid the usual distortions between horizontal and vertical measurements. Between the highest point in the model, the Tower of Psephinus (815m/2,674ft), and the lowest, in the Kidron valley (606m/1,988ft), there is a difference in height of some 4 meters (13 feet).
In constructing the model the original materials (stone, marble, metal) were used, so that a protective roof could be dispensed with. This enhanced the realistic effect of the model, though it meant that the details could not be so accurately reproduced as in plaster or plastic material. The design of the model was based on a careful examination and evaluation of the archeological evidence and the written sources.
The most important of these sources were, for the structure and furnishings of the Temple, two treatises in the Mishnah, the "Midot" ("Survey") and the "Tamid" ("The Daily Temple Sacrifice"), and for the city as a whole Flavius Josephus's description in the "Jewish War". There are still gaps, however, in our knowledge of the city before its destruction in A.D. 70 - its detailed layout and, more particularly, the style of the larger buildings.
This meant looking for analogies elsewhere. Thus the Hasmonean palace (second-first century B.C.) and the Herodian buildings (first century B.C.) were modeled on Hellenistic palaces, the palace of Queen Helen of Adiabene on Parthian buildings in her native Mesopotamia.
The entrance to the site (portable tape-recorded commentaries available) is on the west side, from which there is a general view of the city extending eastward to the Temple Mount. To the north can be seen the Second Wall and Agrippa I's Third Wall, with an extensive unbuilt-on area between them. At the northwest corner is the octagonal Tower of Psephinus. Half way along the west side are the three towers of Herod's Citadel ("David's Tower"). In front is the square tower named Phasael after Herod's elder brother, with two storys rising above the lower wall-walk; beyond this is the tower named Hippicus after a friend of Herod's, with tall pillars round its four sides and a round upper section topped by a small dome; and to the south of this is the tower named Mariamne after Herod's wife, a Hasmonean princess, with a square base, three storys of varying height surrounded by columns and a pointed conical top. To the north of the Citadel is the tomb of the Hasmonean high priest John Hyrcanus (135-104 B.C.), with a pyramidal roof. To the south (in what is now the Armenian Quarter) is the rectangular palace of Herod with its gardens and suites of rooms. The adjoining upper town is laid out as an elegant residential district, with a rectangular grid of streets in accordance with the principles of Hippodamus of Miletus.
Built against the wall running from the Citadel to Temple Mount (on the line of present-day David Street and Chain Street) is the rectangular complex of the Hasmonean palace. To the south of this (against the wall between the upper and lower town) is the Roman-style theater built by Herod. Going round the model in an anti-clockwise direction, we come to the south and then to the east side. Here we see the lower town, reconstructed as a huddle of small houses. In this area were shops, craftsmen's workshops and industrial establishments. To the east of this is the cramped area of the original City of David on Mount Ophel, into which Michael Avi-Yonah fitted a Roman hippodrome and a number of palatial mansions. To the north of this is the Temple Mount, separated from the city to the west by the Valley of the Cheesemakers (Tyropoeon), which is now filled in. At the southwest corner are the steps leading up the hill over Robinson's Arch; farther north is Wilson's Arch. In the south wall can be seen the Huldah Gates, one of the main entrances to the Temple (brought to light by recent excavations). Above the south wall rises the Royal Stoa (Stoa Basilike). Other colonnaded halls can be seen on the other sides of the large platform, the center of which is occupied by the Herodian Temple with its courtyards on the east side. The exterior of this tall and massive structure is decorated with half-columns, pilasters, richly ornamented pediments and stepped battlements. On the north the Temple platform is dominated by the mighty Antonia Fortress with its four corner towers, another Herodian building. To the north, within the inner wall (the Second Wall), are various markets. Beyond the outer wall (the Third Wall) the most notable feature is the Pool of Bethesda, surrounded by four Hellenistic porticoes, with a fifth dividing it into two halves. Here as elsewhere the model makes clear that in the first century A.D., in the time of Jesus, Jerusalem was largely a Hellenistic town. Here, as elsewhere in the Near East in this period Greco-Roman and Eastern were combined in a characteristic mixed culture.
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