The Temple in Jerusalem

The first Temple in Jerusalem was completed around 960 BC. King David chose the location, but it was his son, Solomon, who ordered its construction. The Hebrew Scriptures record that Solomon’s Temple was an incredible achievement, built through the labors of approximately 180,000 workers, artists, and craftsmen.

However, not long after completion, the Temple in Jerusalem suffered a series of assaults, with its treasures plundered over the years by the Egyptians and Assyrians. Then, in 587 BC, the Temple was totally destroyed by the Babylonians. About 70 years later, the Babylonians were defeated and Cyrus the Great of Persia allowed the Hebrew people to return home and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. This Temple was appropriately known as the “Second Temple.”
Alexander the Great conquered Judea in 332 BC. After his death, Jerusalem and the Second Temple became part of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt. Then, in about 200 BC, Judea came under the authority of the Seleucid Empire of Syria. In 167 BC, Antiochus IV of Syria committed the ultimate offense against the Judean people when he erected an altar to Zeus and slaughtered pigs there to defile the place. The Second Temple in Jerusalem was looted and its religious services stopped.
A Judean rebel group called the Maccabees rose up against the Seleucid Empire to reclaim the honor of Judaism. The Revolt was a series of battles over seven years, where the outnumbered Maccabees became known for their guerrilla warfare tactics. In 160 BC, the Maccabees finally reclaimed Jerusalem and ritually cleansed the Temple. The Temple again became the religious pillar of the Jewish people. This 103-year-period of relative independence was known as the Hasmonean dynasty. Herod the Great ended that dynasty by collaborating with the Romans to turn Judea into a client state kingdom of the Roman Empire.

In around 20 BC, Herod the Great began a massive rebuild of the Temple in Jerusalem to make it bigger and better than before.

https://www.drivethruhistory.com/The Temple in Jerusalem/