In his 1999 book
The Temples that Jerusalem Forgot, Martin argued that the
Haram al-Sharif is not the location of the last Temple. This was significant given his relationship with Herbert W. Armstrong whose editorial in
The Plain Truth magazine was cited by
Denis Michael Rohan as a reason for setting fire to the Al Aqsa mosque during the 1960s.
The basis of this work began with Martin's first visit to Jerusalem in 1961 when he first met
Benjamin Mazar and later his son Ory Mazar, who informed him of his belief that the Temples of
Solomon and
Zerubbabel were located on the
Ophel mound to the north of the original
Mount Zion on the southeast ridge. In a 1996 draft report to support this theory, Martin wrote, "I was then under the impression that Simon the Hasmonean (along with Herod a century later) moved the Temple from the Ophel mound to the Dome of the Rock area." However, after studying the words of
Josephus concerning the Temple of
Herod the Great, which was reported to be in the same general area of the former Temples, he then read the account of Eleazar who led the final contingent of Jewish resistance to the
Romans at
Masada which stated that the Roman fortress was the only structure left by 73 C.E..
"With this key in mind, I came to the conclusion in 1997 that all the Temples were indeed located on the Ophel mound over the area of the Gihon Spring."[4] From these conclusions, Martin produced his book in which he asserted that the Temples of Jerusalem were located over the Gihon Spring and not over the Dome of the Rock. He wrote, "What has been amazing to me is the vast amount of Jewish, Muslim, and Christian records that remain available from the first to the sixteenth centuries that clearly vindicate the conclusions that I have reached in this book of research."
