the New Temple

Click on thumbnails for larger picture views.

• The Beginning

In 1993, I began to ponder our origins as human beings and re-examined everything from the history that I had learned in school, to science and religion.

After some research in various sources, including the Bible, I was perplexed by the fact that there exists no temple for the whole world.

Soon, I considered the possibility of creating a structure that would not only symbolize God’s presence on earth, but also serve as a temple for people from all religions and nations. It would be open to all women, men, and children of every creed and color -- and it would be passport-free!

I examined the guidelines set by the Judeo-Christian prophet Ezekiel; the accounts of Moses’ Tabernacle; as well as descriptions of the temples and pyramids of Ancient Egypt, Central America, Southeast Asia, the mounds of North America and Ireland, Stonehenge, the Pantheon in Rome, the Bahá’i  temples, mountains, and other structures from around the world.

In the end, however, I chose to trust my inner voice.

• Parameters

In the New Temple, there will be no images, text, or sculptures of humans or animals.

The structure itself will speak to our inner selves; its materials, colors, geometry, proportions and dimensions will harmonize and balance our spirit.

The only entrance for the Temple District would be from the east, this gate would be guarded by two obelisks stemming from water fountains.

Every detail of the temple serves a purpose, with no unnecessary decoration and no doors, but with natural open passageways all equidistant from the center.

Only the innermost Tempietto is inaccessible.

• Drawings

In 1994 I hand sketched the initial outlines on a Manila folder, and then put them aside until 1997, when I designed the structure in detail. The concept  lay dormant until after I had discovered the benefits and potential of computers and software.

This web site was created on February 16, 2006 after many months of work to produce the images that you can view here.

This is still an unfinished endeavor. In the future, there will be many more drawings and possibly a video displaying not just the New Temple, but also its immediate district and a city radiating from its center. I already have the whole city sketched out in broad lines, and need only to fill in the details.

• Choosing a Web Site Name

The domain name www.akhetaten.com was chosen because I felt that the Jewish temple was a development of the temple built by the Pharaoh Akhenaten, who vigorously promoted the worship of one God against the others. 

• Zodiac

The New Temple, also reminds us of the Zodiac with its 12 signs in the heavens.

Zodiac

Zodiac

Zodiac

Zodiac

Zodiac

Zodiac

Ptolemaic System

Atalanta

• Atlantis

As my studies reached further back in history and entered mythology, I discovered that the New Temple -- with its circular shape, rather than the rectangular form of past temples -- had more affinity with the lost City of Atlantis, as described by Plato and also depicted by the Italian Dominican philosopher Tommaso Campanella in his book The City of the Sun.

While the New Temple can also be called the Temple of the Sun, we can also refer to it as the Temple of the Infinite. 

• Freemasonry

After designing the New Temple, I began to realize that many motifs from different belief systems were present in the structure, especially those of Freemasonry, an ancient organization that views God as the Master Architect, and which holds a temple as its central image.

• Geometry

I first designed the inner structure around a sphere. Everything evolved from that point.

The materials used will be carbon fiber, concrete, steel, aluminum, titanium, bronze, granite, marble, with copper covering the outer columns and cornice, gold covering the outer domes, platinum covering the inner domes, and precious stones lining the oculi of both domes.

• Proportions

These were based on the Golden Section number Phi 1.6180339887498948482……. as in the Fibonacci sequence of numbers 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, etc. and the other irrational number Pi  3.1415926535897932384……. They are interlocked in the design of the New Temple. 

• Miscellaneous Information

The inner Tempietto dome represents the Moon. The inner Temple dome represents the Earth and the external top dome represents the Sun.

The smaller inner Tempietto fits perfectly through the large oculus of the outer dome.

The total number of columns is 144, a numeral present in the Fibonacci sequence of numbers; view the film “π” (Greek Pi) from Darren Aronofski and find out what the New Temple also signifies according to Hebrew Gematria with the number 144.

The numbers of the columns radiating out of the inner Tempietto are 12-24-36-72. The median 36 columns may well be the tallest ever to be built.

When viewing the New Temple District with the outer roads from above, I was struck by its similarity to the sun disc with rays in the representation of the god Aten by Pharaoh Akhenaten.

The Great Pyramid of Giza would comfortably fit inside the New Temple as would many other existing large structures.