**The Side Structure (***Yatzia Sovev***)**

The word *yatzia* appears to have two different meanings in the description of Solomon's Temple. The first meaning is a structure that surrounded the Temple, thus constituting a kind of exterior mantle for the building (1 Kings 6:5–6). The second meaning is an attic.

There are different opinions about the side chamber. Some scholars claim that it surrounded only the Outer Sanctum and the Holy of Holies, thus supporting the proposal that the Forecourt was an open courtyard rather than a roofed chamber. Other scholars reconstruct the side chamber as surrounding all three parts of the Temple—the Forecourt, the Outer Sanctum, and the Holy of Holies.

This type of temple architecture was known in the Levant only during the Iron Age (Davey 1980). Such temples were not constructed in later periods, making Edelman's (2012) suggestion to date the biblical description to the Persian period irrelevant.
