As any altar that lacks a ramp, or a horn, or a base, or the shape of a square, either because it was not erected as a square or due to damage, is disqualified for use in the Temple service. Rabbi Yosei bar Yehuda says: Even the surrounding ledge must be complete, and if it is lacking it disqualifies the altar.

§ Rabba bar bar Ḥana said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said: The drainpipes [shittin] built into the altar and extending beneath it were created from the six days of Creation, as it is stated: “The hidden of your thighs are like the links of a chain, the handiwork of a skilled workman” (Song of Songs 7:2). The Gemara interprets the verse homiletically: “The hidden of your thighs”; these are the drainpipes that are concealed within the altar; “are like the links of a chain [ḥala’im]”; they are hollow [meḥolalin] and descend to the depths; “the handiwork of a skilled workman”; this is the handiwork of the Holy One, Blessed be He. On a similar note, it was taught in the school of Rabbi Yishmael that it is written: “In the beginning [bereshit]” (Genesis 1:1); do not read it as: Bereshit, but rather as: Bara shit, meaning that God created the pipeline descending from the altar.

It was taught in a baraita that Rabbi Yosei says: These drainpipes are hollow and descend to the depths, as it is stated: “Let me sing of my well beloved, a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well beloved had a vineyard in a very fruitful hill, and he dug it, and cleared it of stones, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also hewed out a vat therein” (Isaiah 5:1–2). Rabbi Yosei interprets these verses homiletically as referring to the Temple. “He planted it with the choicest vine”; this is referring to the Temple; “he built a tower therein”; this is referring to the altar; “and hewed out a vat therein”; this is referring to the drainpipes. As the owner of the vineyard is a parable for God, this indicates that the drainpipes are a natural part of Creation.

It was taught in a baraita that Rabbi Elazar bar Tzadok said: There was a small gap between the ramp and the altar west of the ramp, and once in seventy years young priests would descend there and gather from there the congealed wine left over from the libations that set over time, which resembled round cakes of dried and pressed figs. They would then come and burn it in sanctity in the Temple courtyard, as it is stated: “In sanctity shall you pour a libation of strong drink unto the Lord” (Numbers 28:7);