Outside the Temple

⁵ Then he measured the wall of the temple; it was 10½ feet thick. The width of the side rooms all around the temple was 7 feet.^{[a](A) 6} The side rooms were arranged one above another in three stories of thirty rooms each.^[b] There were ledges on the wall of the temple all around to serve as supports for the side rooms, so that the supports would not be in the temple wall itself.^{(B) 7} The side rooms surrounding the temple widened at each successive story, for the structure surrounding the temple went up by stages. This was the reason for the temple’s broadness as it rose. And so, one would go up from the lowest story to the highest by means of the middle one.^[c](C)

⁸ I saw that the temple had a raised platform surrounding it; this foundation for the side rooms was 10½ feet high.^{[d](D) 9} The thickness of the outer wall of the side rooms was 8¾ feet. The free space between the side rooms of the temple ¹⁰ and the outer chambers was 35 feet wide all around the temple.^{(E) 11} The side rooms opened into the free space, one entrance toward the north and another to the south. The area of free space was 8¾ feet wide all around.