Imagined Palestine

The land of the Torah in ancient Yemen

Author's name: Fadhel Al-Rubaie

The Babylonian captivity of the Jews never took place in Palestine, nor did the Egyptians and Assyrians ever clash on its land. Solomon's ships never sailed the Mediterranean, nor did they ever dock in the Lebanese ports of Tyre. Furthermore, King David never fought the Philistines. While it is claimed that the Temple was built in Palestine, the truth is unavoidable today, in light of al-Hamdani's discovery, which I present here. It says that the Yemeni Jewish tribes returning from the Babylonian captivity were the ones who rebuilt the Temple in the Yemeni highlands, not in Palestine. Therefore, the Temple was never built in Jerusalem, and the walls of Jerusalem, which Nehemiah oversaw the restoration, do not exist there at all. Furthermore, there is no Temple of Solomon under the Dome of the Rock, while we find the temples in the Yemeni highlands, as al-Hamdani described them, in conjunction with the mention of the names of the Yemeni Jewish tribes. What's interesting, in light of this discovery, is that we see that the Yemenis still call all remains of ancient buildings "temples." Generally speaking, it was the Yemeni Jewish tribes returning from captivity who restored the walls of Jerusalem, starting from a location the Torah calls "Sha'ar." This is the name of a famous mountain in Yemen.