According to legend, The Temple of Solomon was ninety feet long, thirty feet wide, and forty-five feet high. The roof was constructed with large cedar beams and the brick walls were trabeated or reinforced with a timber-frame. The walls were then completely covered by cedar panelling. Columns and floors were made of wood, as were the great doors at the entrance to the temple. Adjacent buildings formed a palace known as the “House of the Forests of Lebanon,” that was even larger than the Temple itself. King Solomon needed many skilled carpenters.
The temple was a long building, divided into a covered porch at the front, a large public space within, and ending at the back with an inner sanctum, a room accessible only to the high priests. Here was kept the “Holy of Holies”, the Ark of the Covenant, within which was stored the sacred law tablets of the Hebrew people, given by their one god, YHWH, to Moses. The plan of Solomon’s Temple was like that of the Egyptian country house and was probably of Phoenician design. It resembles the Megaron layout of Greek antiquity and was continued in later Phoenician (or Punic) colonies such as Carthage.
Hiram, a ‘king’ of Tyre, was sent for to be the master builder for King Solomon. The island city of Tyre was a centre of the specialized crafts of wood and metal. It controlled valuable resources in the form of raw and finished materials as well as a working population with skills and know-how, who had developed techniques locally and through their contact with other people, such as the Egyptians and the Minoans, via extensive maritime trade. Multi-talented craftsmen such as Hiram were familiar with the working of metals, stone, wood, textiles, plaster, and paint. They were sought after in the small elite world of royal or priestly luxury production. It is evident that the rich resources claimed by the various kingdoms of the region were only valuable when accompanied by skilled workmanship.
Mysteries of the Carpenter 