The platform of the Temple Mount was divided into four areas which possessed different grades of holiness (Against Apion, Book 2, 102-104; The Mishna, Kelim 1.6-9) gradually increasing from the outside inward. The first, outer, area, 'the Foreigners' Courtyard', included the stoas where economic activities were conducted. This area was accessible to all, including non-Jews. It is probably from here that Jesus had expelled the money changers (Matthew XXI, 12). In the center of the Temple Mount stood the temple and its courtyards. Non-Jews were warded off by admonitions forbidding this access and pronouncing a life sentence to violators (the sorag inscription). This stone-fenced, elevated platform (the Women's Courtyard; 67 x 67 meters), was accessed from the east by 14(12?) steps leading through the 'Beautiful gate' (Acts 3, 2). The rituals that took place in this second area were not connected with sacrificing, i.e., the reading of Bible verses on Yom Kippur, during the Haq`hel ceremony and during the Bet Ha-Sho`eva Festival. This area was accessible to purified Jewish men and women. The entrance to the third area ('Israel's Courtyard'; 5 x 67 meters) was via fifteen semicircular steps, on which the Levites chanted the Songs of Ascents - opening onto the Nicanor gate. Here only purified Jewish men could offer their sacrifices. To the north was the forth area - 'the Priest's Courtyard' - which housed the altar and the slaughterhouse.

The temple itself was divided into three sections: (1) the hall (Ulam, - entered through a the main opening, and wider than the two other sections; (2) the nave (Hekhal) that housed the golden altar, the showbread table and the golden candelabRum (menorah); (3) Holy of Holies (Qodesh Ha-Qodashim) - entered only once a year, on Yom Kippur, only by the High Priest himself for the days rituals.