- Update 3/1/09 - There's also a nice picture gallery of 19 images. Mr. Garrard's book, The Splendor of the Temple, is published in the US by Kregel. (HT: Justin Taylor)
(Original Post) - This is an amazing story -- what craftsmanship, what patience, what an extraordinary contribution to the world! From Britain's Daily Mail (HT: HotAir):
For his part, Mr Garrard, 78, has dedicated 33,000 hours to constructing his model and has hand-baked and painted every clay brick and tile and even sculpted 4,000 tiny human figures to populate the courtyards.
Historical experts believe the model, which has attracted thousands of visitors from all over the globe, is the best representation in the world of what the Jewish temple actually looked like.
Click through for several photos and read the whole article. It will be worth it. Here is a sample photo:
A peek into the 1:100 scale model, here showing the Court of Prayer, enables one to see the extraordinary attention to detail where Alec has hand-baked and painted every clay brick and tile
And here's a photo from the London Telegraph: