The substructions alone were of stone.

They were probably not on so grand a scale as those of the Jewish Temple, since the wealth of Hiram, sovereign of a petty kingdom, must have fallen very far short of Solomon's, ruler of an extensive empire.
At the close of the twenty years during which Hiram had assisted Solomon in his buildings, the Israelite monarch deemed it right to make his Tyrian brother some additional compensation beyond the corn, and wine, and oil with which, according to his contract, he had annually supplied him.

Accordingly, he voluntarily ceded to him a district of Galilee containing twenty cities, a portion of the old inheritance of Asher,[1489] conveniently near to Accho, of which Hiram was probably lord, and not very remote from Tyre.

The tract appears to have been that where the modern Kabul now stands, which is a rocky and bare highland,[1490]--part of the outlying roots of Lebanon--overlooking the rich plain of Akka or Accho, and presenting a striking contrast to its fertility.

Hiram, on the completion of the cession, "came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him," and was disappointed with the gift.