The temple mount

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The Temple Mount
Dr Uday Dokras Phd. Stockholm,SWEDEN
Srishti Dokras, Architect-IDEAS,India
The Temple Mount (Hebrew: ‫ِר‬‫ה‬ ַ ‫ב‬ ַ ‫י‬ ִ‫,ת‬Harַ‫ה‬ HaBáyit, "Mount of the House [of God, i.e.
the Temple in Jerusalem]"), known to Muslims as the Haram esh-Sharif (Arabic: ِ‫ال‬‫مرح‬
‫,فيرشال‬ al-Ḥaram al-Šarīf, "the Noble Sanctuary", or ‫مرحال‬ِ‫ال‬‫يسدق‬ِ‫ال‬‫,فيرش‬ al-Ḥaram al-Qudsī al-Šarīf,
"the Noble Sanctuary of Jerusalem") and the Al Aqsa Compound, is a hill located in the Old
City of Jerusalem that for thousands of years has been venerated as a holy
site in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam alike.
The present site is a flat plaza surrounded by retaining walls (including the Western Wall) which
was built during the reign of Herod the Great for an expansion of the temple. The plaza is
dominated by three monumental structures from the early Umayyad period: the al-Aqsa Mosque,
the Dome of the Rock and the Dome of the Chain, as well as four minarets. Herodian walls and
gates, with additions from the late Byzantine and early Islamic periods, cut through the flanks of
the Mount. Currently it can be reached through eleven gates, ten reserved for Muslims and one
for non-Muslims, with guard posts of Israeli police in the vicinity of each.
According to Jewish tradition and scripture, the First Temple was built by King Solomon the son
of King David in 957 BCE and destroyed by the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 586 BCE – however
no substantial archaeological evidence has verified this.The Second Temple was constructed
under the auspices of Zerubbabel in 516 BCE and destroyed by the Roman Empire in 70 CE.
Orthodox Jewish tradition maintains it is here that the third and final Temple will also be built
when the Messiah comes. The location is the holiest site in Judaism and is the place Jews turn
towards during prayer. Due to its extreme sanctity, many Jews will not walk on the Mount itself,
to avoid unintentionally entering the area where the Holy of Holies stood, since according to
Rabbinical law, some aspect of the divine presence is still present at the site.
Among Muslims, the Mount is the site of one of the three Sacred Mosques, the holiest sites in
Islam. Amongst Sunni Muslims, it is considered the third holiest site in Islam. Revered as the
Noble Sanctuary, the location of Muhammad's journey to Jerusalem and ascent to heaven, the
site is also associated with Jewish biblical prophets who are also venerated in Islam. Umayyad
Caliphs commissioned the construction of the al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock on the
site. The Dome was completed in 692 CE, making it one of the oldest extant Islamic structures in
the world. The Al Aqsa Mosque rests on the far southern side of the Mount, facing Mecca. The
Dome of the Rock currently sits in the middle, occupying or close to the area where the Holy
Temple previously stood.
In light of the dual claims of both Judaism and Islam, it is one of the most contested religious
sites in the world. Since the Crusades, the Muslim community of Jerusalem has managed the site
as a Waqf. The Temple Mount is within the Old City, which has been controlled by Israel since
1967. After the Six-Day War, Israel handed administration of the site back to the Waqf under
Jordanian custodianship, while maintaining Israeli security control. It remains a major focal point

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of the Arab–Israeli conflict. In an attempt to keep the status quo, the Israeli government enforces
a controversial ban on prayer by non-Muslims.
The concept of the "Temple Mount" gained prominence in the first century CE, after the
destruction of the Second Temple. Although the term "Temple Mount" was first used in the
Book of Micah (4:1) – literally as "Mount of the House" – it was not used again until
approximately one thousand years later. The term was not used in the New Testament. The term
was used next in the Talmud's Tractate Middot (1:1–3, 2:1–2), in which the area was described
in detail. The term was used frequently in Talmudic texts thereafter.
Topographical map of Jerusalem, showing the Temple Mount on the eastern peak/The Holyland Model of Jerusalem, an
imagined reconstruction of the city in the late Second Temple period, showing the large flat expanse on the Temple Mount as
a base for Herod's Temple, in the center. View from the east.
The Temple Mount forms the northern portion of a very narrow spur of hill that slopes sharply
downward from north to south. Rising above the Kidron Valley to the east and Tyropoeon Valley
to the west, its peak reaches a height of 740 m (2,428 ft) above sea level. In around 19 BCE,
Herod the Great extended the Mount's natural plateau by enclosing the area with four massive
retaining walls and filling the voids. This artificial expansion resulted in a large flat expanse
which today forms the eastern section of the Old City of Jerusalem. The trapezium shaped
platform measures 488 m along the west, 470 m along the east, 315 m along the north and 280 m
along the south, giving a total area of approximately 150,000 m2
(37 acres). The northern wall of
the Mount, together with the northern section of the western wall, is hidden behind residential
buildings. The southern section of the western flank is revealed and contains what is known as
the Western Wall. The retaining walls on these two sides descend many meters below ground
level. A northern portion of the western wall may be seen from within the Western Wall Tunnel,
which was excavated through buildings adjacent to the platform. On the southern and eastern
sides the walls are visible almost to their full height. The platform itself is separated from the rest
of the Old City by the Tyropoeon Valley, though this once deep valley is now largely hidden
beneath later deposits, and is imperceptible in places. The platform can be reached via Gate of
the Chain Street – a street in the Muslim Quarter at the level of the platform, actually sitting on a
monumental bridge; the bridge is no longer externally

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visible due to the change in ground level, but it can be seen from beneath via the Western Wall
Tunnel.
Religious significance of Jerusalem
The Temple Mount has historical and religious significance for all three of the major Abrahamic
religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It has particular religious significance for Judaism and
Islam, and the competing claims of these faith communities has made it one of the most
contested religious sites in the world.
Wall of the Temple Mount (southeast corner)
Judaism
The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism, which regards it as the place where God's
divine presence is manifested more than in any other place, and is the place Jews turn towards
during prayer. Due to its extreme sanctity, many Jews will not walk on the Mount itself, to avoid
unintentionally entering the area where the Holy of Holies stood, since according to Rabbinical
law, some aspect of the divine presence is still present at the site. It was from the Holy of Holies
that the High Priest communicated directly with God.
Mount Moriah : According to the rabbinic sages whose debates produced the Talmud, it was
from here the world expanded into its present form and where God gathered the dust used to
create the first human, Adam. 2 Chronicles 3:1 refers to the Temple Mount in the time before the
construction of the temple as Mount Moria. The "land of Moriah" the name given by Genesis to
the location of Abraham's binding of Isaac. Since at least the first century CE, the two sites have
been identified with one another in Judaism, this identification being subsequently perpetuated
by Jewish and Christian tradition. Modern scholarship tends to regard them as distinct (see
Moriah).

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Presumed to be The Foundation Stone, or a large part of it
Jewish connection and veneration to the site arguably stems from the fact that it contains the
Foundation Stone which, according to the rabbis of the Talmud, was the spot from where the
world was created and expanded into its current form. It was subsequently the Holy of Holies of
the Temple, the Most Holy Place in Judaism. Jewish tradition names it as the location for a
number of important events which occurred in the Bible, including the Binding of Isaac, Jacob's
dream, and the prayer of Isaac and Rebekah. Similarly, when the Bible recounts that King David
purchased a threshing floor owned by Araunah the Jebusite tradition locates it as being on this
mount. An early Jewish text, the Genesis Rabba, states that this site is one of three about which
the nations of the world cannot taunt Israel and say "you have stolen them," since it was
purchased "for its full price" by David. According to the Bible, David wanted to construct a
sanctuary there, but this was left to his son Solomon, who completed the task in c. 950 BCE with
the construction of the First Temple.
According to Jewish tradition, both Jewish Temples stood at the Temple Mount, though
archaeological evidence only exists for the Second Temple. However, the identification of
Solomon's Temple with the area of the Temple Mount is widespread. According to the Bible the
site should function as the center of all national life—a governmental, judicial and religious
center. During the Second Temple period it functioned also as an economic center. According to
Jewish tradition and scripture, the First Temple was built by King Solomon the son of King
David in 957 BCE and destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The second was constructed
under the auspices of Zerubbabel in 516 BCE and destroyed by the Roman Empire in 70 CE. In
the 2nd century, the site was used for a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus. It was redeveloped
following the Arab conquest. Jewish texts predict that the Mount will be the site of a Third and
final Temple, which will be rebuilt with the coming of the Jewish Messiah. A number of vocal
Jewish groups now advocate building the Third Holy Temple without delay in order to bring to
pass God's "end-time prophetic plans for Israel and the entire world."
Mount Zion: Several passages in the Hebrew Bible indicate that during the time when they were
written, the Temple Mount was identified as mount zion. The Mount Zion mentioned in the later
parts of the Book of Isaiah (Isaiah 60:14), in the Book of Psalms, and the First Book of
Maccabees (c. 2nd century BCE) seems to refer to the top of the hill, generally known as the
Temple Mount. According to the Book of Samuel, Mount Zion was the site of the Jebusite
fortress called the "stronghold of Zion", but once the First Temple was erected, according to the
Bible, at the top of the Eastern Hill ("Temple Mount"), the name "Mount Zion" migrated there

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too. The name later migrated for a last time, this time to Jerusalem's Western Hill.
In 1217, Spanish Rabbi Judah al-Harizi found the sight of the Muslim structures on the mount
profoundly disturbing. "What torment to see our holy courts converted into an alien temple!" he
wrote.
Christianity
The Temple was of central importance in Jewish worship in the Tanakh (Old Testament). In the
New Testament, Herod's Temple was the site of several events in the life of Jesus, and Christian
loyalty to the site as a focal point remained long after his death. After the destruction of the
Temple in 70 CE, which came to be regarded by early Christians, as it was by Josephus and the
sages of the Jerusalem Talmud, to be a divine act of punishment for the sins of the Jewish
people, the Temple Mount lost its significance for Christian worship with the Christians
considering it a fulfillment of Christ's prophecy at, for example, Matthew 23:28 and 24:2. It was
to this end, proof of a biblical prophecy fulfilled and of Christianity's victory over Judaism with
the New Covenant, that early Christian pilgrims also visited the site. Byzantine Christians,
despite some signs of constructive work on the esplanade, generally neglected the Temple
Mount, especially when a Jewish attempt to rebuild the Temple was destroyed by the earthquake
in 363. and it became a desolate local rubbish dump, perhaps outside the city limits, as Christian
worship in Jerusalem shifted to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and Jerusalem's centrality was
replaced by Rome.
During the Byzantine era, Jerusalem was primarily Christian and pilgrims came by the tens of
thousands to experience the places where Jesus walked. After the Persian invasion in 614 many
churches were razed and the site was turned into a dumpyard. The Arabs conquered the city from
the Byzantine Empire which had retaken it in 629. The Byzantine ban on the Jews was lifted and
they were allowed to live inside the city and visit the places of worship. Christian pilgrims were
able to come and experience the Temple Mount area. The war between Seljuqs and Byzantine
Empire and increasing Muslim violence against Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem instigated the
Crusades. The Crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099 and the Dome of the Rock was given to the
Augustinians, who turned it into a church, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque became the royal palace of
Baldwin I of Jerusalem in 1104. The Knights Templar, who believed the Dome of the Rock was
the site of the Solomon's Temple, gave it the name "Templum Domini" and set up their
headquarters in the Al-Aqsa Mosque adjacent to the Dome for much of the 12th century.]
In Christian art, the circumcision of Jesus was conventionally depicted as taking place at the
Temple, even though European artists until recently had no way of knowing what the Temple
looked like and the Gospels do not state that the event took place at the Temple.
Though some Christians believe that the Temple will be reconstructed before, or concurrent
with, the Second Coming of Jesus (also see dispenzationalism), pilgrimage to the Temple Mount
is not viewed as important in the beliefs and worship of most Christians. The New Testament
recounts a story of a Samaritan woman asking Jesus about the appropriate place to worship,
Jerusalem or the Samaritan holy place at Mount Gerizim, to which Jesus replies,
Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you
worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for
salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers
will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship

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him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. (John 4:21–24)
This has been construed to mean that Jesus dispensed with physical location for worship, which
was a matter rather of spirit and truth.
Islam
Facade of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, view from north/Interior decoration of the Dome of the Rock(
ABOVE)

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The Dome on the Rock as an Islamic shrine, as seen from the north
Almost immediately after the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem in 638 CE, Caliph 'Omar ibn al
Khatab, disgusted by the filth covering the site, had it thoroughly cleaned, and granted Jews
access to the site. Among Sunni Muslims, the Mount is widely considered the third holiest site in
Islam. Revered as the Noble Sanctuary, the location of Muhammad's journey to Jerusalem and
ascent to heaven, the site is also associated with Jewish biblical prophets who are also venerated
in Islam. Muslims preferred to use the esplanade as the heart for the Muslim quarter, since it had
been abandoned by Christians, to avoid disturbing the Christian quarters of Jerusalem. Umayyad
Caliphs commissioned the construction of the al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock on the
site. The Dome was completed in 692 CE, making it one of the oldest extant Islamic structures in
the world. The Al Aqsa Mosque rests on the far southern side of the Mount, facing Mecca. The
Dome of the Rock currently sits in the middle, occupying or close to the area where the Holy
Temple previously stood.
A 13th-century claim to an extended region of holiness was made by Ibn Taymiyyah who
asserted: "Al-Masjid al-Aqsa is the name for the whole of the place of worship built
by Sulaymaan" [which, according to western tradition, presents] "the place of worship built
by Solomon" known as Solomon's Temple. Ibn Taymiyyah had also opposed giving any undue
religious honors to mosques (even that of Jerusalem), to approach or rival in any way the
perceived Islamic sanctity of the two most holy mosques within Islam, Masjid al-Haram (in
Mecca) and Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (in Madina).
Muslims view the site as being one of the earliest and most noteworthy places of worship of
God. For a few years in the early stages of Islam, Muhammad instructed his followers to face the
Mount during prayer.
The site is also important as being the site of the "Farthest Mosque" (mentioned in the Quran as
the location of Muhammad's miraculous Night Journey) to heaven.:
Exalted is He who took His Servant by night from al-Masjid al-Haram (the Sacred Mosque) to al-
Masjid al-Aqsa (the Further Mosque), whose surroundings We have blessed, to show him of Our signs.
Indeed, He is the Hearing, the Seeing.
— Quran 17:1
The hadith, a collection of the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, confirm that the location of the Al-
Aqsa mosque is indeed in Jerusalem:
When the people of Quraish did not believe me (i.e. the story of my Night Journey), I stood up in Al-
Hijr and Allah displayed Jerusalem in front of me, and I began describing Jerusalem to them while I
was looking at it.
— Sahih al-Bukhari: Volume 5, Book 58, Number 226
Muslim interpretations of the Quran agree that the Mount is the site of a Temple built by
Sulayman, considered a prophet in Islam, that was later destroyed.[61]
After the construction, Muslims believe, the temple was used for the worship of one God by
many prophets of Islam, including Jesus. Other Muslim scholars have used the Torah (called
Tawrat in Arabic) to expand on the details of the temple.

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Archaeological remnants of the Jerusalem Temple
Israelite period
The hill is believed to have been inhabited since the 4th millennium BCE. Assuming colocation
with the biblical Mount Zion, its southern section would have been walled at the beginning of the
2nd millennium BCE, in around 1850 BCE, by Canaanites who established a settlement there (or
in the vicinity) named Jebus. Jewish tradition identifies it with Mount Moriah where the binding
of Isaac took place. According to the Hebrew Bible, the Temple Mount was originally a
threshing-floor owned by Araunah, a Jebusite. The prophet Gad suggested the area to King
David as a fitting place for the erection of an altar to YHWH, since a destroying angel was
standing there when God stopped a great plague in Jerusalem.
David then bought the property from Araunah, for fifty pieces of silver, and erected the altar.
YHWH instructed David to build a sanctuary on the site, outside the city walls on the northern
edge of the hill. The building was to replace the Tabernacle, and serve as the Temple of the
Israelites in Jerusalem. The Temple Mount is an important part of Biblical archaeology.
Persian, Hasmonean and Herodian periods
Much of the Mount's early history is synonymous with events pertaining to the Temple itself.
After the destruction of Solomon's Temple by Nebuchadnezzar II, construction of the Second
Temple began under Cyrus in around 538 BCE, and was completed in 516 BCE. Evidence of a
Hasmonean expansion of the Temple Mount has been recovered by archaeologist Leen
Ritmeyer. Around 19 BCE, Herod the Great further expanded the Mount and rebuilt the temple.
The ambitious project, which involved the employment of 10,000 workers more than doubled the
size of the Temple Mount to approximately 36 acres (150,000 m2
). Herod leveled the area by
cutting away rock on the northwest side and raising the sloping ground to the south. He achieved
this by constructing huge buttress walls and vaults, and filling the necessary sections with earth
and rubble. A basilica, called by Josephus "the Royal Stoa", was constructed on the southern end
of the expanded platform, which provided a focus for the city's commercial and legal
transactions, and which was provided with separate access to the city below via the Robinson's
Arch overpass.[70]
In addition to restoration of the Temple, its courtyards and porticoes, Herod
also built the Antonia Fortress, abutting the northwestern corner of the Temple Mount, and a
rainwater reservoir, Birket Israel, in the northeast. As a result of the First Jewish–Roman War,
the fortress was destroyed in 70 CE by Titus, the army commander and son of Roman emperor
Vespasian.
Middle Roman period
The city of Aelia Capitolina was built in 130 CE by the Roman emperor Hadrian, and occupied
by a Roman colony on the site of Jerusalem, which was still in ruins from the First Jewish Revolt
in 70 CE. Aelia came from Hadrian's nomen gentile, Aelius, while Capitolina meant that the new
city was dedicated to Jupiter Capitolinus, to whom a temple was built overlapping the site of the
former second Jewish temple, the Temple Mount.
Hadrian had intended the construction of the new city as a gift to the Jews, but since he had
constructed a giant statue of himself in front of the Temple of Jupiter and the Temple of Jupiter
had a huge statue of Jupiter inside of it, there were on the Temple Mount now two enormous
graven images, which Jews considered idolatrous. It was also customary in Roman rites to
sacrifice a pig in land purification ceremonies. In addition to this, Hadrian issued a decree

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prohibiting the practice of circumcision. These three factors, the graven images, the sacrifice of
pigs before the altar, and the prohibition of circumcision, are thought to have constituted for non-
Hellenized Jews a new abomination of desolation, and thus Bar Kochba launched the Third
Jewish Revolt. After the Third Jewish Revolt failed, all Jews were forbidden on pain of death
from entering the city or the surrounding territory around the city.
Stone piles (along the western wall, near the southern end) from the walls of the Temple Mount
The Trumpeting Place inscription, a stone (2.43x1 m) with Hebrew inscription ‫תיבל‬ ‫העיקתה‬ ‫בהל‬
"To the Trumpeting Place" excavated by Benjamin Mazar at the southern foot of the Temple
Mount is believed to be a part of the Second Temple.
Late Roman period
From the 1st through the 7th centuries Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire,
gradually became the predominant religion of Palestine and under the Byzantines Jerusalem
itself was almost completely Christian, with most of the population being Jacobite Christians of
the Syrian rite.
Emperor Constantine I promoted the Christianization of Roman society, giving it precedence
over pagan cults.[74]
One consequence was that Hadrian's Temple to Jupiter on the Temple
Mount was demolished immediately following the First Council of Nicea in 325 CE on orders of
Constantine.
The Bordeaux Pilgrim, who visited Jerusalem in 333–334, during the reign of Emperor
Constantine I, wrote that "There are two statues of Hadrian, and, not far from them, a pierced
stone to which the Jews come every year and anoint. They mourn and rend their garments, and
then depart." The occasion is assumed to have been Tisha b'Av, since decades later Jerome
related that that was the only day on which Jews were permitted to enter Jerusalem.
Constantine's nephew Emperor Julian granted permission in the year 363 for the Jews to rebuild
the Temple. In a letter attributed to Julian he wrote to the Jews that "This you ought to do, in

10. 10
order that, when I have successfully concluded the war in Persia, I may rebuild by my own
efforts the sacred city of Jerusalem, which for so many years you have longed to see inhabited,
and may bring settlers there, and, together with you, may glorify the Most High God therein.”
Julian saw the Jewish God as a fitting member of the pantheon of gods he believed in, and he
was also a strong opponent of Christianity.Church historians wrote that the Jews began to clear
away the structures and rubble on the Temple Mount but were thwarted, first by a great
earthquake, and then by miracles that included fire springing from the earth.However, no
contemporary Jewish sources mention this episode directly.
Byzantine period
During his excavations in the 1930s, Robert Hamilton uncovered portions of a multicolor mosaic
floor with geometric patterns inside the al-Aqsa mosque, but didn't publish them. The date of the
mosaic is disputed: Zachi Dvira considers that they are from the pre-Islamic Byzantine period,
while Baruch, Reich and Sandhaus favor a much later Umayyad origin on account of their
similarity to a known Umayyad mosaic.
Sassanid period
In 610, the Sassanid Empire drove the Byzantine Empire out of the Middle East, giving the Jews
control of Jerusalem for the first time in centuries. The Jews in Palestine were allowed to set up a
vassal state under the Sassanid Empire called the Sassanid Jewish Commonwealth which lasted
for five years. Jewish rabbis ordered the restart of animal sacrifice for the first time since the
time of Second Temple and started to reconstruct the Jewish Temple. Shortly before the
Byzantines took the area back five years later in 615, the Persians gave control to the Christian
population, who tore down the partially built Jewish Temple edifice and turned it into a garbage
dump, which is what it was when the Rashidun Caliph Umar took the city in 637.
Early Muslim period
Southwest qanatir (arches) of the Haram al Sharif, Qubat al-Nahawiyya is also partially visible to the right./
model of the Haram-al-Sharif made in 1879 by Conrad Schick. The model can be seen in the Bijbels Museum in
Amsterdam
In 637 Arabs besieged and captured the city from the Byzantine Empire, which had defeated the
Persian forces and their allies, and reconquered the city. There are no contemporary records, but
many traditions, about the origin of the main Islamic buildings on the mount. A popular account
from later centuries is that the Rashidun Caliph Umar was led to the place reluctantly by the
Christian patriarch Sophronius. He found it covered with rubbish, but the sacred Rock was found
with the help of a converted Jew, Ka'b al-Ahbar. Al-Ahbar advised Umar to build a mosque to
the north of the rock, so that worshippers would face both the rock and Mecca, but instead Umar

11. 11
chose to build it to the south of the rock. It became known as the Al-Aqsa Mosque. According to
Muslim sources, Jews participated in the construction of the haram, laying the groundwork for
both the Al-Aqsa and Dome of the Rock mosques. The first known eyewitness testimony is that
of the pilgrim Arculf who visited about 670. According to Arculf's account as recorded by
Adomnán, he saw a rectangular wooden house of prayer built over some ruins, large enough to
hold 3,000 people.
In 691 an octagonal Islamic building topped by a dome was built by the Caliph Abd al-Malik
around the rock, for a myriad of political, dynastic and religious reasons, built on local and
Quranic traditions articulating the site's holiness, a process in which textual and architectural
narratives reinforced one another. The shrine became known as the Dome of the Rock (ِ ‫ةبق‬
‫,ةرخصال‬ Qubbat as-Sakhra). (The dome itself was covered in gold in 1920.) In 715 the
Umayyads, led by the Caliph al-Walid I, built the Aqsa Mosque (‫دجسمال‬ ِ‫ا‬‫,ىصقأل‬ al-Masjid al-

12. 12
Aqsa, lit. "Furthest Mosque"), corresponding to the Islamic belief of Muhammad's miraculous
nocturnal journey as recounted in the Quran and hadith. The term "Noble Sanctuary" or "Haram
al-Sharif", as it was called later by the Mamluks and Ottomans, refers to the whole area that
surrounds that Rock.
For Muslims, the importance of the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque makes Jerusalem
the third-holiest city, after Mecca and Medina. The mosque and shrine are currently administered
by a Waqf (an Islamic trust). The various inscriptions on the Dome walls and the artistic
decorations imply a symbolic eschatological significance of the structure.
Crusader and Ayyubid period
The Crusader period began in 1099 with the First Crusade's capture of Jerusalem. After the city's
conquest, the Crusading order known as the Knights Templar was granted use of the Dome of
the Rock on the Temple Mount. This was probably by Baldwin II of Jerusalem and Warmund,
Patriarch of Jerusalem at the Council of Nablus in January 1120, which gave the Templars a
headquarters in the captured Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Temple Mount had a mystique because it
was above what were believed to be the ruins of the Temple of Solomon. The Crusaders
therefore referred to the Al Aqsa Mosque as Solomon's Temple, and it was from this location
that the new Order took the name of "Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon", or
"Templar" knights.
In 1187, once he retook Jerusalem, Saladin removed all traces of Christian worship from the
Temple Mount, returning the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque to their original
purposes. It remained in Muslim hands thereafter, even during the relatively short periods of
Crusader rule following the Sixth Crusade.
Mamluk period
There are several Mamluk buildings on and around the Haram esplanade, such as the late 15th-
century al-Ashrafiyya Madrasa and Sabil (fountain) of Qaitbay. The Mamluks also raised the
level of Jerusalem's Central or Tyropoean Valey bordering the Temple Mount from the west by
constructing huge substructures, on which they then built on a large scale. The Mamluk-period
substructures and over-ground buildings are thus covering much of the Herodian western wall of
the Temple Mount.
Ottoman period
Following the Ottoman conquest of Palestine in 1516, the Ottoman authorities continued the
policy of prohibiting non-Muslims from setting foot on the Temple Mount until the early 19th
century, when non-Muslims were again permitted to visit the site.
In 1867, a team from the Royal Engineers, led by Lieutenant Charles Warren and financed by the
Palestine Exploration Fund (P.E.F.), discovered a series of tunnels near the Temple Mount.
Warren secretly excavated some tunnels near the Temple Mount walls and was the first one to
document their lower courses. Warren also conducted some small scale excavations inside the
Temple Mount, by removing rubble that blocked passages leading from the Double Gate
chamber.
British Mandatory period
Between 1922 and 1924, the Dome of the Rock was restored by the Islamic Higher Council.
Jordanian period

13. 13
Jordan undertook two renovations of the Dome of the Rock, replacing the leaking, wooden inner
dome with an aluminum dome in 1952, and, when the new dome leaked, carrying out a second
restoration between 1959 and 1964.
Neither Israeli Arabs nor Israeli Jews could visit their holy places in the Jordanian territories
during this period.
Israeli period
On 7 June 1967, during the Six-Day War, Israeli forces advanced beyond the 1949 Armistice
Agreement Line into West Bank territories, taking control of the Old City of Jerusalem, inclusive
of the Temple Mount.
The Chief Rabbi of the Israeli Defense Forces, Shlomo Goren, led the soldiers in religious
celebrations on the Temple Mount and at the Western Wall. The Israeli Chief Rabbinate also
declared a religious holiday on the anniversary, called "Yom Yerushalayim" (Jerusalem Day),
which became a national holiday to commemorate the reunification of Jerusalem. Many saw the
capture of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount as a miraculous liberation of biblical-messianic
proportions.[96]
A few days after the war over 200,000 Jews flocked to the Western Wall in the
first mass Jewish pilgrimage near the Mount since the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE.
Islamic authorities did not disturb Goren when he went to pray on the Mount until, on the Ninth
Day of Av, he brought 50 followers and introduced both a shofar, and a portable ark to pray, an
innovation which alarmed the Waqf authorities and led to a deterioration of relations between the
Muslim authorities and the Israeli government. The then Prime Minister of Israel, Levi Eshkol,
gave control of access to the Temple Mount to the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf. The site has since
been a flash-point between Israel and local Muslims.
In June 1969 an Australian tried to set fire to Al-Aqsa; on April 11, 1982 a Jew hid in the Dome
of the Rock and sprayed gunfire, killing 2 Palestinians and wounding 44; in 1974, 1977 and 1983
groups led by Yoel Lerner conspired to blow up both the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa; on 26
January 1984 Waqf guards detected members of B'nei Yehuda, a messianic cult of former
gangsters turned mystics based in Lifta, trying to infiltrate the area to blow it up. On October 8,
1990, Israeli forces patrolling the site blocked worshippers from reaching it. A tear gas canister
was set off among the female worshippers, which caused events to escalate. On 12 October 1990
Palestinian Muslims protested violently the intention of some extremist Jews to lay a cornerstone
on the site for a New Temple as a prelude to the destruction of the Muslim mosques. The attempt
was blocked by Israeli authorities but demonstrators were widely reported as having stoned Jews
at the Western Wall. According to Palestinian historian Rashid Khalidi, investigative journalism
has shown this allegation to be false. Rocks were eventually thrown, while security forces fired
rounds that ended up killing 21 people and injuring 150 more. An Israeli inquiry found Israeli
forces at fault, but it also concluded that charges could not be brought against any particular
individuals. In December 1997, Israeli security services preempted an attempt by Jewish
extremists to throw a pig's head wrapped in the pages of the Quran into the area, in order to spark
a riot and embarrass the government.
Between 1992 and 1994, the Jordanian government undertook the unprecedented step of gilding
the dome of the Dome of the Rock, covering it with 5000 gold plates, and restoring and
reinforcing the structure. The Salah Eddin minbar was also restored. The project was paid for

14. 14
by King Hussein personally, at a cost of $8 million.The Temple Mount remains, under the terms
of the 1994 Israel–Jordan peace treaty, under Jordanian custodianship.
On September 28, 2000, Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount. He
toured the site, together with a Likud party delegation and a large number of Israeli riot police.
The visit was seen as a provocative gesture by many Palestinians, who gathered around the site.
Demonstrations quickly turned violent, with rubber bullets and tear gas being used. This event is
often cited as one of the catalysts of the Second Palestinian Intifada. Evidence reveals, however,
that one month earlier, Palestinian Authority Justice Minister Freih Abu Middein warned that:
"Violence is near and the Palestinian people are willing to sacrifice even 5,000 casualties." A few
weeks before the outbreak, the official PA publication, Al-Sabah, declared: "The time for the
Intifada has arrived... the time for jihad has arrived." Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti would
later admit that the Intifada was planned and Sharon merely "provided a good excuse" for the
violence.
Since 1757 a status quo has been applied for the ruling of the Holy places in Jerusalem.
The situation between Jews and Muslims was confirmed in 1919 and Faisal–Weizmann
Agreement concluded that:
Article V. No regulation nor law shall be made prohibiting or interfering with the free exercise of
religion; (...) Article VI. The Mohammedan Holy Places shall be under Mohammedan control.
In 1929 tensions around the Western Wall in which Jews were accused of violating the status
quo generated riots during which 133 Jews and 110 Arabs were killed.
Following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the status quo was not respected any more after Jordan
took control of the Old City of Jerusalem and Jews were prohibited from visiting their Holy
Places in the city.
Under Israeli control
A few days after the Six-Day War, on June 17, 1967, a meeting was held at al-Aqsa between
Moshe Dayan and Muslim religious authorities of Jerusalem reformulating the status quo. Jews
were given the right to visit the Temple Mount unobstructed and free of charge if they respected
Muslims' religious feelings and acted decently, but they were not allowed to pray. The Western
Wall was to remain the Jewish place of prayer. 'Religious sovereignty' was to remain with the
Muslims while 'overall sovereignty' became Israeli. The Muslims objected to Dayan's offer, as
they completely rejected the Israeli conquest of Jerusalem and the Mount. Some Jews, led by
Shlomo Goren, then the military chief rabbi, had objected as well, claiming the decision handed
over the complex to the Muslims, since the Western Wall's holiness is derived from the Mount
and symbolizes exile, while praying on the Mount symbolizes freedom and the return of the
Jewish people to their homeland. The President of the High Court of Justice, Aharon Barak, in
response to an appeal in 1976 against police interference with an individual's putative right to
prayer on the site, expressed the view that, while Jews had a right to prayer there, it was not
absolute but subject to the public interest and the rights of other groups. Israel's courts have
considered the issue as one beyond their remit, and, given the delicacy of the matter, under
political jurisdiction. He wrote:
The basic principle is that every Jew has the right to enter the Temple Mount, to pray there, and
to have communion with his maker. This is part of the religious freedom of worship, it is part of
the freedom of expression. However, as with every human right, it is not absolute, but a relative
right... Indeed, in a case where there is near certainty that injury may be caused to the public

15. 15
interest if a person's rights of religious worship and freedom of expression would be realized, it
is possible to limit the rights of the person in order to uphold the public interest.
Police continued to forbid Jews to pray on the Temple Mount. Subsequently, several prime
ministers also made attempts to change the status quo, but failed to do so. In October 1986, an
agreement between the Temple Mount Faithful, the Supreme Muslim Council and police, which
would allow short visits in small groups, was exercised once and never repeated, after 2,000
Muslims armed with stones and bottles attacked the group and stoned worshipers at the Western
Wall. During the 1990s, additional attempts were made for Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount,
which were stopped by Israeli police.
Until 2000, non-Muslim visitors could enter the Dome of the Rock, al-Aqsa Mosque and the
Islamic Museum by getting a ticket from the Waqf. That procedure ended when the Second
Intifada erupted. Fifteen years later, negotiation between Israel and Jordan might result in
reopening of those sites once again.
In the 2010s, fear arose among Palestinians that Israel planned to change the status quo and
permit Jewish prayers or that the al-Aqsa mosque might be damaged or destroyed by Israel. Al-
Aqsa was used as a base for attacks on visitors and the police from which stones, firebombs and
fireworks were thrown. The Israeli police had never entered al-Aqsa Mosque until November 5,
2014, when dialog with the leaders of the Waqf and the rioters failed. This resulted in imposing
strict limitations on entry of visitors to the Temple Mount. Israeli leadership repeatedly stated
that the status quo would not change. According to then Jerusalem police commissioner Yohanan
Danino, the place is at the center of a "holy war" and "anyone who wants to change the status
quo on the Temple Mount should not be allowed up there", citing an "extreme right-wing agenda
to change the status quo on the Temple Mount"; Hamas and Islamic Jihad continue to
erroneously assert that the Israeli government plans to destroy Al-Aksa Mosque, resulting in
chronic terrorist attacks and rioting.
There have been several changes to the status quo: (1) Jewish visits are often prevented or
considerably restricted. (2) Jews and other non-Islamic visitors can only visit from Sunday to
Thursday, for four hours each day. (3) Visits inside the mosques are not allowed. (4) Jews with
religious appearance must visit in groups monitored by Waqf guards and policemen.
Many Palestinians believe the status quo is threatened since right-wing Israelis have been
challenging it with more force and frequency, asserting a religious right to pray there. Until
Israel banned them, members of Murabitat, a group of women, cried 'Allah Akbar' at groups of
Jewish visitors to remind them the Temple Mount was still in Muslim hands.
Management & Administration:
An Islamic Waqf has managed the Temple Mount continuously since the Muslim reconquest of
the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1187. On June 7, 1967, soon after Israel had taken control of
the area during the Six-Day War, Prime Minister Levi Eshkol assured that "no harm whatsoever
shall come to the places sacred to all religions". Together with the extension of Israeli
jurisdiction and administration over east Jerusalem, the Knesset passed the Preservation of the
Holy Places Law, ensuring protection of the Holy Places against desecration, as well as freedom
of access thereto. The site remains within the area controlled by the State of Israel, with

16. 16
administration of the site remaining in the hands of the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf.
Although freedom of access was enshrined in the law, as a security measure, the Israeli
government currently enforces a ban on non-Muslim prayer on the site. Non-Muslims who are
observed praying on the site are subject to expulsion by the police. At various times, when there
is fear of Arab rioting upon the mount resulting in throwing stones from above towards the
Western Wall Plaza, Israel has prevented Muslim men under 45 from praying in the compound,
citing these concerns. Sometimes such restrictions have coincided with Friday prayers during the
Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Normally, West Bank Palestinians are allowed access to
Jerusalem only during Islamic holidays, with access usually restricted to men over 35 and
women of any age eligible for permits to enter the city. Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, which
because of Israel's annexation of Jerusalem, hold Israeli permanent residency cards, and Israeli
Arabs, are permitted unrestricted access to the Temple Mount. The Mughrabi Gate is the only
entrance to the Temple Mount accessible to non-Muslims.
During Temple times, entry to the Mount was limited by a complex set of purity laws. Persons
suffering from corpse uncleanness were not allowed to enter the inner court. Non-Jews were also
prohibited from entering the inner court of the Temple. A hewn stone measuring 60 x 90 cm. and
engraved with Greek uncials was discovered in 1871 near a court on the Temple Mount in
.There is debate over whether reports that Maimonides himself ascended the Mount are reliable.
One such report claims that he did so on Thursday, October 21, 1165, during the Crusader
period. Some early scholars however, claim that entry onto certain areas of the Mount is
permitted. It appears that Radbaz also entered the Mount and advised others how to do this. He
permits entry from all the gates into the 135×135 cubits of the Women's Courtyard in the east,
since the biblical prohibition only applies to the 187×135 cubits of the Temple in the west. There
are also Christian and Islamic sources which indicate that Jews visited the site, but these visits
may have been made under duress.
ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES
Dome of the Rock platform
A flat platform was built around the peak of the Temple Mount, carrying the Dome of the Rock;
the peak just breaches the floor level of the upper platform within the Dome of the Rock, in the
shape of a large limestone outcrop, which is part of the bedrock. Beneath the surface of this rock
there is a cave known as the Well of Souls, originally accessible only by a narrow hole in the
rock itself; the Crusaders hacked open an entrance to the cave from the south, by which it can
now be entered.[
There is also a smaller domed building on the upper platform, slightly to the east
of the Dome of the Rock, known as the Dome of the Chain — traditionally the location where a
chain once rose to heaven.Several stairways rise to the upper platform from the lower; that at the
northwest corner is believed by some archaeologists be part of a much wider monumental
staircase, mostly hidden or destroyed, and dating from the Second Temple era.
Lower platform

17. 17
The al-Kas ablution fountain for Muslim worshippers on the southern portion of the lower
platform
The lower platform – which constitutes most of the surface of the Temple Mount – has at its
southern end the al-Aqsa Mosque, which takes up most of the width of the Mount. Gardens take
up the eastern and most of the northern side of the platform; the far north of the platform houses
an Islamic school.
The lower platform also houses an ablution fountain (known as al-Kas), originally supplied with
water via a long narrow aqueduct leading from the so-called Solomon's Pools near Bethlehem,
but now supplied from Jerusalem's water mains.
There are several cisterns beneath the lower platform, designed to collect rain water as a water
supply. These have various forms and structures, seemingly built in different periods, ranging
from vaulted chambers built in the gap between the bedrock and the platform, to chambers cut
into the bedrock itself. Of these, the most notable are (numbering traditionally follows Wilson's
scheme.
Cistern 1 (located under the northern side of the upper platform). There is a speculation that
it had a function connected with the altar of the Second Temple (and possibly of the earlier
Temple), or with the bronze sea.
 Cistern 5 (located under the south eastern corner of the upper platform) — a long and narrow
chamber, with a strange anti-clockwise curved section at its north western corner, and

18. 18
containing within it a doorway currently blocked by earth. The cistern's position and design
is such that there has been speculation it had a function connected with the altar of the
Second Temple (and possibly of the earlier Temple), or with the bronze sea. Charles Warren
thought that the altar of burnt offerings was located at the north western end.
 Cistern 8 (located just north of the al-Aqsa Mosque) — known as the Great Sea, a large rock
hewn cavern, the roof supported by pillars carved from the rock; the chamber is particularly
cave-like and atmospheric, and its maximum water capacity is several hundred thousand
gallons.
 Cistern 9 (located just south of cistern 8, and directly under the al-Aqsa Mosque) — known
as the Well of the Leaf due to its leaf-shaped plan, also rock hewn.
 Cistern 11 (located east of cistern 9) — a set of vaulted rooms forming a plan shaped like the
letter E. Probably the largest cistern, it has the potential to house over 700,000 gallons of
water.
 Cistern 16/17 (located at the centre of the far northern end of the Temple Mount). Despite
the currently narrow entrances, this cistern (17 and 16 are the same cistern) is a large vaulted
chamber, which Warren described as looking like the inside of the cathedral at Cordoba
(which was previously a mosque). Warren believed that it was almost certainly built for
some other purpose, and was only adapted into a cistern at a later date; he suggested that it
might have been part of a general vault supporting the northern side of the platform, in which
case substantially more of the chamber exists than is used for a cistern.
Gates
Main article: Gates of the Temple Mount
The eastern set of Hulda gates
Robinson's Arch, situated on the southwestern flank, once supported a staircase that led to the
Mount.
Sealed gates
The Temple Mount, located in Jerusalem, can be accessed through twelve gates, and contains a
further six sealed gates. This list does not include the Gates of the Old City of Jerusalem around
the external walls.

19. 19
The following is an anti-clockwise list of gates which open onto the Temple Mount. Currently
eleven gates are open to the Muslim public. Non-Muslims are permitted to enter only through the
Mughrabi (or Morocco, or Moors) gate.
Gate of the Tribes
Gate of the Tribes
The Gate of the Tribes is located at the north-eastern corner of the Temple Mount. Its name
refers to the 12 tribes of Israelites who left Egypt and came to the Holy Land to find the
Promised Land. Bab al- Asbät is located to the east of the short northern side of the al-Aqsa
enclave. Behind the gate, there is also a road as the Lions' Gate in the old city (also known as St
Stephen's Gate).
Asbät gate is one of the important ancient gates and the gate names had been given by Ibn al
Fakih and Ibn Abd' Rabbih two earliest authorities. The Asbät gate was first built by the Mamluk
Ruler Bybars. Later, the door was renewed by Sultan Süleyman I during the Ottoman period.
According to a legend, Sultan Suleyman I, who had a bad dream, is claimed to have started to
renew the walls of Jerusalem Beytulmakdis after this dream.
The Asbät gate is located on the northern wall of the Haram al-Sharif and it is in the double
gateway also, it is almost directly opposite Ahwab Mihrab Mariam. The entrance to the gate is
impressively decorated. There has the single opening of a semicircular arch with a distinctive 45-
degree chamfer and segmental inner arch at the part of the gate that has reached the present time,
also the masonry of the wall shows that there are two gates because 1.20 meters of the gate wall
reaches to the west side. According to Ratrout, the Early Muslim architecture of Bab al-Asbät
and its dimensions coincide with those of Bab al-Hashmi. Bab al-Asbät is 2.81 meters in the
width of the doorway, 3.30 meters in the width of the inner threshold of the doorway, and 4.30
meters in height of its arch.
Gate of Remission-The Gate of Remission (Arabic: Babِal-Huttah) is located on the north side.
Gate of Darkness
The Gate of Darkness is one of the three gates located on the north side. It is traditionally
known as Gate of al-Dawadariya. More recently it is also known as King Faisal Gate. It is
located close to the al-Dawadariya School. The gate is four meters tall with an arched roof. At
least a couple renovations are known, once circa 1213 during the reign of Ayyubid King Al-
Moatham Sharf Ad-Din Issa and then circa 1930 by King Faisal of Saudi Arabia.

20. 20
Bab al-'Attam (Gate of Darkness)
Gate of Bani Ghanim-The Gate of Bani Ghanim (Arabic: Babِal-Ghawanima) is located on the
north-western corner.
Gate of the Seraglio or Palace (closed)
A twelfth gate still open during Ottoman rule is now closed to the public: Bab as-Sarai (Gate of
the Seraglio, or of the Palace); a small gate to the former residence of the Pasha of Jerusalem; in
the northern part of the western wall, between the Bani Ghanim and Council gates.
Council Gate-The Council Gate (Arabic: Babِal-Majlis), also known as the Inspector's Gate
(Arabic: Babِan-NazirِorِNadhir), is located on the northern side of the western Temple Mount
wall.
Iron Gate
Little Western Wall near the Iron Gate
The Iron Gate (Arabic: Babِ al-Hadid, Hebrew: Shaar Barzel) is located on the western side, at
the end of Bab al-Hadid Street, being within the Muslim Quarter, and where, before entering,
one gains access to an exposed and contiguous section of the ancient wall of the Temple Mount,
known locally as the Little Western Wall.
Cotton Merchants' Gate

21. 21
The Dome of the Rock viewed through the Cotton Merchants' Gate
The Cotton Merchants' Gate is one of the most beautiful gates that leads onto the Temple
Mount. It was built by the ruler of Damascus, Tankiz, during the reign of Mamluk Sultan ibn
Qalawun, as marked by an inscription over the door. Since this site is the closest a person can get
to the Foundation Stone without setting foot on the mount itself, the gate was a popular place of
prayer for Jews during the 19th century. Al-Malik an-Nasir Nasir ad-Din Muhammad ibn
Qalawun commonly known as an-Nasir Muhammad or by his kunya: Abu al-Ma'ali or as Ibn
Qalawun (1285–1341) was the ninth Bahri Mamluk sultan of Egypt who ruled during three
reigns: December 1293–December 1294, 1299–1309, and 1310 until his death in 1341.
Ablution Gate
Through the Ablution Gate towards the Old City
The Ablution Gate is located on the western flank.
Tranquility Gate
The Tranquility Gate, also Gate of the Dwelling (Bab as-Sakina), is located in the central part
of the western wall.
Chain Gate

22. 22
Gate of the Chain/ To RIGHT The 2 nd Temple
The Chain Gate is located on the western flank. It may have been the location of the Kipunos
(Coponius) Gate, which existed during the Second Temple period
Moors Gate
The Gate of the Moors from within the Mount
The Gate of the Moors, known in Israel as Mughrabi Gate is located on the western flank,
directly over the Herodian-period gate known as Barclay's Gate. Over the years, the ground level
outside Barclay's Gate rose by many meters above its threshold and Barclay's Gate was finally
walled up in the 10th century. At some stage, probably in the 12th century and maybe even later,
a new gate called Bab al-Magharbeh was installed in the Western Wall above Barclay's Gate, at
the level of the Temple Mount esplanade. It was named after the residents of the adjacent
neighborhood, who had come to Jerusalem from the Maghreb in the days of Saladin. This gate is
open to this day and has been since 1967 the only entrance to the Temple Mount accessible to
non-Muslims.
The gate, specifically the excavation of the historic ramp leading up to it, has been a point of
contention between Israelis and Arab Muslims.[14]
In February 2004, a wall which supported the
800-year-old ramp jutting out from the Western Wall and leading up to the Gate of the Moors,
partially collapsed. Israeli authorities believed a recent earthquake and snowfall may have been
responsible, while Hamas and Muslim officials blamed the collapse on Israelis working in the
area. In 2007, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) built a temporary wooden pedestrian bridge
to the Gate of the Moors. No agreement could be reached over a more permanent structure.
The damaged ramp, situated beneath the bridge and not connected to it, consists of an
accumulation of archaeological layers which have been excavated by the IAA, who removed

23. 23
surface material and made visible several ruined structures. This was done in contravention to
the action plan initially submitted by the IAA to the UNESCO.
In 2013, an archaeological excavation was conducted at the Mughrabi Gate by Hayim-Her
Barbe, Roie Greenvald, and Yevgeni Kagan, on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).
Sealed Gated: The Golden Gate is one of the few sealed gates in Jerusalem's Old City Walls,
along with the Huldah Gates, and a small Biblical and Crusader-era postern located several
stories above ground on the southern side of the eastern wall.The wall surrounding the Temple
Mount contains six sealed gates. Here is a counter clockwise list:
Golden Gate
The Golden Gate, as it is called in Christian literature, is the only eastern gate of the Temple
Mount and one of only two that used to offer access into the city from that side. It has been
walled up since medieval times. The date of its construction is disputed and no archaeological
work is allowed at the gatehouse, but opinions are shared between a late Byzantine and an early
Umayyad date.
The Hebrew name of the Golden Gate is Sha'ar HaRachamim -Gate of Mercy. In the Mishnah
(Middot 1:3), the eastern gate of the second Temple compound is called the Shushan Gate. If the
Golden Gate does preserve the location of the Shushan Gate, which is only a presumption with
no archaeological proof, this would make it the oldest of the current gates in Jerusalem's Old
City Walls.
In Christian apocryphal texts, the gate was the scene of the meeting between the parents of Mary
after Saint Joseph's first dream, so that the gate became the symbol of the Immaculate
Conception of Mary and Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate became a standard
subject in cycles depicting the Life of the Virgin. It is also said that Jesus, riding on a donkey,
passed through this gate on Palm Sunday, in fulfillment of the Jewish prophecy concerning the
Messiah. The Synoptic Gospels appear to support this belief by indicating Jesus came down from
the direction of the Mount of Olives and immediately arrived at the Temple Mount. The Gospel
of John alternatively suggests the Pharisees were watching the arrival, possibly from the Temple
Mount.[2]
Some equate it with the Beautiful Gate mentioned in Acts 3.
In Arabic, it is known as Bab al-Dhahabialso written Bab al-Zahabi, meaning "Golden Gate";
another Arabic name is the Gate of Eternal Life. Additionally, for Muslims each of the two
doors of the double gate has its own name: Bab al-Rahma, "Gate of Mercy", for the southern
one, and Bab al-Taubah, the "Gate of Repentance", for the northern one. Similar to Christians,
Muslims generally believe this was the gate through which Jesus as Messiah, entered Jerusalem.
In Muslim tradition the name of this gate is associated with the Day of Judgement. The other
name, the Golden Gate, is based on the Christian tradition that Jesus made his last entry to the
holy region Bayt al-Maqdis through this gate. In Jewish tradition, however, the Messiah will
enter the city through this gate. Indeed, both of the two names have a religious meaning, which

24. 24
indicates how significant the gate is. It was built by Solomon in Jewish and Christian tradition.
But there is no evidence of that about archaeological and historical.
The gate represents a rectangular stonework structure with two decorated facades. Unlike other
gates in al-Aqsa enclave, the eastern facade was not built as part of the wall of the enclave, but
was shifted 2.00 metres out off the wall. Bab al-Rahmah is a double gate. The two bays are
reflected in its plan and main elevations; two doorways are followed by a double passage
covered by three pairs of domes. Originally, the eastern facade of Bab al-Rahmah has two large
doorways, separated by a column. Each doorway measures 3.90 metres in width, supporting a
semicircular arch with a decorated frieze. The doorways in the eastern facade were blocked up in
the Ottoman period. It is noticed that some features in the decoration of Bab al-Rahmah bear a
close resemblance to the decoration in other non-Muslim buildings that existed in Historical
Syria. The openings of Bab al-Rahmah lead to a rectangular domed vestibule, measuring 20.37
metres in length and 10.50 metres in width. At that time, the hall consisted of six shallow domes,
which have elliptical shape, two of which were changed later. These domes are separated by
arches of an elliptical shape springing from two pilasters at the entrances and two central
columns. Each dome in Bab al-Rahmah is constructed over a square plan, so special stones are
required to form the successive stone circles that form the dome. Architecturally, the spatial
treatment of the gate is somewhat interesting; shifting the facade 2 metres out of the wall
indicates a clear definition of its location. The most important question concerning this gate is
the matter of motive.
Symbolises a Gate in Paradise
Since the early times of Muslim rule over the holy region Bayt al-Maqdis, some Muslims, such
as ‘Ubadah ibn al-Samit, linked the eastern wall of the enclave with the Last Day. According to
Ibn Kathir, this wall is not the wall mentioned in the Quranic verse “so a wall will be put up
betwixt them, with a gate therein” [57:13], but it was mentioned by some commentators as an
example for the clarification of the meaning of the verse. Since that time, this example probably
encouraged Muslims to bury their dead immediately outside the eastern wall of the al-Aqsa
enclave. In any case, if the name “al-Rahmah” (Mercy) truly exists since the construction of the
gate, this suggests that the gate is part of an overall concept based on the idea related to the
place, specifically the Rock, as that of the Last Day. Then it can be argued that Bab al-Rahmah
symbolises a gate in paradise or an entry to Mercy (Ratrout, 2004, p. 293). Whatever the
construction motive of Bab al-Rahmah might have been, it was built during the early Islamic
period, and it is the most significant gate of the enclave.
History of Construction:
The gate is located in the northern third of the Temple Mount's eastern wall. The present gate
was probably built in the 520s AD, as part of Justinian I's building program in Jerusalem, on top
of the ruins of the earlier gate in the wall.[
An alternative theory holds that it was built in the later
part of the 7th century by Byzantine artisans employed by the Umayyad khalifs.[7]
The Ottoman
Turks transformed the walled-up gate into a watchtowerOn the ground floor level a vaulted hall
is divided by four columns into two aisles, which lead to the Door of Mercy, Bab al-Rahma, and
the Door of Repentance, Bab al-Taubah; an upper floor room has the two roof domes as its
ceiling.

25. 25
In 2003, access to the Golden Gate from within the Temple Mount was sealed off by Israeli
authorities, in opposition to construction plans by the Islamic Waqf who failed to secure the
proper building permit.
Early history
The 1st-century historian, Josephus, who mentions the "eastern gate" in his Antiquities, makes
note of the fact that this gate was considered within the far northeastern extremity of the inner
sacred court. According to the Mishnah, there was formerly a causeway which led out of the
Temple Mount eastward over the Kidron valley, extending as far as the Mount of Olives. Rabbi
Eliezer, dissenting, says that it was not a causeway, but rather marble pillars over which cedar
boards had been laid, used by the High Priest and his entourage. This gate was not used by the
masses to enter the Temple Mount, but reserved only for the High Priest and all those that aided
him when taking out the Red Heifer or the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement.
The history of the gate has always been in dispute. The vast majority of the 19th and early 20th
century scholars such as Robinson, Conder, Bartlett, Vincent and Abel, Melchior de Vogüé and
Creswell dated the gate to different periods prior to the Islamic period. Latterly, in the light of
developing research, new arguments have been advanced by many scholars such as Hamilton,
Sharon, Ben-Dov, Rozen Ayalon, Tsafrir and Wilkinson that the gate should be dated to the 7th–
8th century AD, to the Umayyad period.
Sealing of the Gate: The gate was closed by the Muslims in 810, and reopened in 1102 by the
Crusaders, it was walled up by Saladin after regaining Jerusalem in 1187. Ottoman Sultan
Suleiman the Magnificent rebuilt it together with the city walls, but walled it up in 1541, and it
stayed that way. Suleiman may have taken this decision purely for defensive reasons, but in
Jewish tradition this is the gate through which the Anointed One (Messiah) will enter Jerusalem.
In relation to the Muslim belief Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, it is suggested[
that Suleiman
the Magnificent sealed off the Golden Gate to prevent a false Messiah or "Antichrist" coming
through entrance. The Ottomans also built a cemetery in front of the gate to prevent a false
precursor to the Anointed One, Elijah, from passing through the gate. This belief was based upon
two premises. First, according to Islamic teaching Elijah is a descendant of Aaron,making him a
priest or kohen. Second, that a Jewish kohen is not permitted to enter a cemetery. This second
premise is not wholly correct because a Kohen is permitted to enter a cemetery in which either
Jews or non-Jews are buried, such as the one outside the Golden Gate, as long as certain laws or
Halakha regarding purity are followed.
The gate was sealed by Israeli authorities in 2003 because the group managing the area had ties
to Hamas. The gate was kept closed in order to stop illegal construction work there by the
Islamic Waqf. Israeli officials believe the work led to the destruction of antiquities from periods
of Jewish presence in the area.
In February 2019, the interior of the gate was reopened for Muslim worshipers from the Temple
Mount. However, the gate itself still remains sealed.

26. 26
Giotto di Bondone, Legend of St Joachim, Meeting at the Golden Gate, 1305 is an early
depiction of the scene.
Honoring the Jewish tradition (see above) and inspired by apocryphal accounts of the life of the
Virgin Mary, medieval Christian artists depicted the relationship of Jesus' maternal grandparents
Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate. The couple came to represent the Christian ideal
of chastity in conjugal relations within marriage. The pious custom of a bridegroom carrying his
bride across the threshold of their marital home may be based in the traditional symbolism of the
Golden Gate to the faithful. In early medieval art, the now-formal tenet of the immaculate
conception of the mother of Christ was commonly depicted in a form known in Italian as the
Metterza: the three generations of grandmother, mother, and son.
The metaphor also features heavily in the personalist phenomenology of Pope John Paul II, his
Theology of the Body, a collection of reflections on this theme Crossing the Threshold of Hope
were written to encourage the Roman Catholic faithful facing the challenges of materialism and
increasing secularism and published on the cusp of the new millennium in 1998. The threshold
between the earthly and heavenly realms symbolized by the Golden Gate represents the Mystical
Body of the Church, often viewed as the Bride of Christ.
In Christian eschatology, sunrise in the east symbolizes both Christ's resurrection at dawn on
Easter Sunday and the direction of his Second Coming. Sanctuaries for Christian
congregational worship at an altar are often arranged with respect to the east. City gates in
Christian urban centers often contain religious artifacts intended to guard the city from attacks
and to bless travelers. The Ostra Brama in Vilnius, Lithuania contains an icon of Our Lady of the
Gate of Dawn, which is venerated by both Roman Catholic and Orthodox inhabitants.
The Golden Gate from within the Mount
Warren's Gate
First described by the nineteenth century surveyor Charles Warren, it is an ancient entrance into
the Temple platform in Jerusalem which lies about 150 feet (46 m) into the Western Wall
Tunnel. In the Second Temple period, the gate led to a tunnel and staircase onto the Temple
Mount.
73

27. 27
After the Rashidun Caliphate conquest of Jerusalem from the Byzantines, Jews were allowed to
pray inside the tunnel. The synagogue was destroyed in the First Crusade in the Siege of
Jerusalem in 1099. The tunnel then became a water cistern, thus its name Cistern 30.
The area is surrounded by a vaulted 18-foot (5.5 m) tunnel.
Rabbi Yehuda Getz, the late official Rabbi of the Western Wall, believed that the Gate
represented the point west of the Wall closest to the Holy of Holies. An underground dispute
broke out in July 1981 between Jewish explorers inside Warren's gate and Arab guards who
came down to meet them through surface cistern entries. A small underground riot ensued which
was only stopped when the Jerusalem police came in to restore the peace.
Western Wall Tunnels
The Western Wall Tunnels have been excavated along side the buried Herodian Temple
Mount wall on the north end of the the Western Wall. Centuries of rubble and debris
has covered up the original ashlar stones of the wall, the streets and much more.
When Herod doubled the size of the Old Testament Temple Mount he expanded to the north,
to the south and to the west. The walls along the west side were set on the bedrock. The west
wall of the Temple Mount’s retaining wall is 1,591 feet long, making it the longest of the four
Temple Mount walls. In 70 AD the Romans completely destroyed the Temple, the Temple
Mount buildings, and most of the Temple Mount wall except for the lower portions that were
buried in the rubble from the debris of the dismantled Temple precincts and walls above.
From the Western Wall Prayer Plaza beside Wilson’s Arch a tunnel can be entered that
runs along the northern portion of the west wall up to its northwest corner.
In 1996 Benjamin Netanyahu allowed the Jews to open the northern end of this Western Wall
tunnel. When the tunnel was blasted through, it opened onto the Ummariya Madrasah, which
is the street adjacent to the Via Dolorosa. This action resulted in riots by the Muslims who
believed that the Jews were tunneling under the Temple Mount and that they were attempting
to lay claim to the area of territory in the Muslim Quarter (which is, either way, in Israel and
under Israeli control). Over the next two weeks 14 people were killed in the riots protesting
the opening of the north end of the Western Wall Tunnel. Today a wall has been built across
the north end of the tunnel. The Tunnel must now be accessed from the north side in the
Convent of the Sisters of Zion. The Struthion Pool lies below this covenant.
74

28. 28
Barclay's Gate
Barclay's Gate lies under the Moroccans' Gate (Moor's Gate) and is one of the four Temple
Mount's original gates on its western side. Its Arabic name is Bab an-Nabi, "Gate of the Prophet
[Muhammad]" (see Le Strange, Palestine Under the Moslems p. 189) - not to be confused with
the Triple Gate, which has the same Arabic name. Barclay's Gate is named after James Turner
75

29. 29
Barclay who was a Christian missionary in Jerusalem in the mid-19th century, and who
discovered the main structure of the gate buried underground within the Temple Mount, in
1852.[23]
Several researchers identified it as one of the Second Temple period gates, possibly the
Coponius Gate, which is mentioned in Jewish and Christian sources of the period. The gate was
blocked with stones at the end of the 10th century and the internal gate room was transformed
into a mosque dedicated to Buraq. Today the room is closed and entrance to it is prohibited
without the approval of the Waqf.
After the Six-Day War, the Israel Religious Affairs Ministry and Prof. Benjamin Mazar, who
was at the time conducting the dig outside the southern wall of the Temple Mount, planned to
uncover this gate, but they were prevented from doing so by both Jewish and Muslim religious
leaders.
The model of the Temple Mount with Wilson's Arch in the bottom right. The stone wall
seen in the background is represented in the model just to the left of Wilson's Arch and
Gate.

30. 30
Huldah Gates
The Triple Gate
The Huldah Gates comprise two sets of bricked-up gates in the southern wall of the Temple
Mount.
The fact that the original entrance gateways still exist reflects an ancient promise cited in a work
of rabbinic literature, Shir ha-Shirim Rabbah: "The Kohen Gate and the Huldah Gate were never
destroyed and God will renew them".[
The 1st-century historian, Josephus, mentions these gates
in his Antiquities: "...the fourth front of the temple [mount], which was southward, had indeed
itself gates in its middle."
Double Gate
Of the Huldah Gates, the left set is a double-arched gate, known as the Double Gate (Arabic: Babِ
ath-Thulathe). It is partially blocked from vision by a crusader tower and only part of the right

31. 31
gate can be seen. The only original part of the gate still visible is the lintel and even this is no
longer in its original position. When first laid it was 11 metres above the doorstep.
Triple Gate
The set on the right is a triple-arched gate, known as the Triple Gate (Arabic: Bab an-Nabi, "Gate
of the Prophet [Muhammad]") - not to be confused with Barclay's Gate, which has the same
Arabic name. Each of the gates once led into a passageway stretching underneath the esplanade
of the Mount, and then to steps leading up to the esplanade itself.
Single Gate
The Single Gate is located along the southern wall. It once led to the underground area of the
Temple Mount known as Solomon's Stables.
Gate of the Funerals or of al-Buraq
Bab al-Jana'iz, or Bab al-Buraq (Gate of the Funerals/of al-Buraq) is a hardly noticeable postern,
or maybe an improvised gate, once opening into the eastern wall a short distance south of the
Golden Gate.
Warren was able to investigate the inside of these gates. Warren's Gate and the Golden Gate
simply head towards the centre of the Mount, fairly quickly giving access to the surface by
steps.[154]
Barclay's Gate is similar, but abruptly turns south as it does so; the reason for this
is currently unknown. The double and triple gates (the Huldah Gates) are more substantial;
heading into the Mount for some distance they each finally have steps rising to the surface just
north of the al-Aqsa Mosque. The passageway for each is vaulted, and has two aisles
(in the case of the triple gate, a third aisle exists for a brief distance beyond the gate); the
eastern aisle of the double gates and western of the triple gates reach the surface, the other
aisles terminating some way before the steps – Warren believed that one aisle of each
original passage was extended when the al-Aqsa Mosque blocked the original surface exits.
In the process of investigating Cistern 10, Warren discovered tunnels that lay under the
Triple Gate passageway. These passages lead in erratic directions, some leading beyond the
southern edge of the Temple Mount (they are at a depth below the base of the walls); their
purpose is currently unknown – as is whether they predate the Temple Mount – a situation
not helped by the fact that apart from Warren's expedition no one else is known to have
visited them.
Altogether, there are six major sealed gates and a postern, listed here counterclockwise,
dating from either the Roman/Herodian, Byzantine, or Early Muslim periods:
Bab al-Jana'iz/al-Buraq (Gate of the Funerals/of al-Buraq); eastern wall; a hardly
noticeable postern, or maybe an improvised gate, a short distance south of the Golden
Gate
 Golden Gate (Bab al-Zahabi); eastern wall (northern third), a double gate:
Bab al-Rahma (Door of Mercy) is the southern opening,
Bab al-Tauba (Door of Repentance) is the northern opening

 Warren's Gate; western wall, now only visible from the Western Wall Tunnel

32. 32
 Bab an-Nabi (Gate of the Prophet) or Barclay's Gate; western wall, visible from the
al-Buraq Mosque inside the Haram, and from the Western Wall plaza (women's
section) and the adjacent building (the so-called house of Abu Sa'ud)
 Double Gate (Bab al-Thulathe; possibly one of the Huldah Gates); southern wall,
underneath the Al-Aqsa Mosque
 Triple Gate; southern wall, outside Solomon's Stables/Marwani Mosque
 Single Gate; southern wall, outside Solomon's Stables/Marwani Mosque
Open gates of the Haram
Main article: Gates of the Temple Mount
There are currently eleven open gates offering access to the Muslim Haram al-Sharif.
 Bab al-Asbat (Gate of the Tribes); north-east corner
 Bab al-Hitta/Huttah (Gate of Remission, Pardon, or Absolution); northern wall
 Bab al-Atim/'Atm/Attim (Gate of Darkness); northern wall
 Bab al-Ghawanima (Gate of Bani Ghanim); north-west corner
 Bab al-Majlis / an-Nazir/Nadhir (Council Gate / Inspector's Gate); western wall
(northern third)
 Bab al-Hadid (Iron Gate); western wall (central part)
 Bab al-Qattanin (Gate of the Cotton Merchants); western wall (central part)
 Bab al-Matarah/Mathara (Ablution Gate); western wall (central part)
Two twin gates follow south of the Ablution Gate, the Tranquility Gate and the Gate
of the Chain:
 Bab as-Salam / al-Sakina (Tranquility Gate / Gate of the Dwelling), the northern
one of the two; western wall (central part)
 Bab as-Silsileh (Gate of the Chain), the southern one of the two; western wall
(central part)
 Bab al-Magharbeh/Maghariba (Moroccans' Gate/Gate of the Moors); western
wall (southern third); the only entrance for non-Muslims
A twelfth gate still open during Ottoman rule is now closed to the public:
 Bab as-Sarai (Gate of the Seraglio); a small gate to the former residence of the
Pasha of Jerusalem; western wall, northern part (between the Bani Ghanim and
Council gates).
Solomon's Stables/Marwani Mosque
East of and joined to the triple gate passageway is a large vaulted area, supporting
the southeastern corner of the Temple Mount platform – which is substantially above
the bedrock at this point – the vaulted chambers here are popularly referred to as
Solomon's Stables. They were used as stables by the Crusaders, but were built
by Herod the Great – along with the platform they were built to support.
Minarets
The Temple Mount has 4 minarets in tota l 3 on the western flank and one on the northern.
4 Minarets: First Minaret -Al-Fakhariyya Minaret

33. 33
About half a year after they conquered Jerusalem (Al-Quds) from the Crusaders, the Mamluks
built or renovated eight major minarets in the Holy City.[1]
The First Minaret, known as Al-
Fakhariyya Minaret, was one of the Mamluks Minarets. It was built in 1278, on the junction of
the southern wall and western wall at the orders of the Mamluk Sultan Lajin. The minaret was
built on the solid part of the wall. It was named after Fakhr al-Din al-Khalili, the father of Sharif
al-Din Abd al-Rahman who supervised the building's construction. The minaret was rebuilt
during the Ottoman period in 1920.
Dating of the minarets in Jerusalem Quds has been done according to the style and shape.
Mamluk minarets generally have a square shape and surround the Haram al-Sharif. Therefore, it
was built in the traditional Syrian style, with a square-shaped base and shaft, divided by
moldings into three floors above which two lines of muqarnas decorate the muezzin's balcony.
The niche is surrounded by a square chamber that ends in a lead-covered stone dome. After the
minaret was damaged in the Jerusalem earthquake, the Minaret's dome was covered with lead.
Second Minaret-Al-Ghawanimah Minaret (Bani Ghanim Minaret)
The second minaret, known as the Ghawanima minaret, was built at the northwestern corner of
the Noble Sanctuary in 1297–98 by architect Qadi Sharaf al-Din al-Khalili, on the orders of the
Sultan Lajin. Six stories high, it is the tallest minaret of the Noble Sanctuary The tower is almost
entirely made of stone, apart from a timber canopy over the muezzin's balcony. Because of its
firm structure, the Ghawanima minaret has been nearly untouched by earthquakes. The minaret
is divided into several stories by stone molding and stalactite galleries. The first two stories are
wider and form the base of the tower. The additional four stories are surmounted by a cylindrical
drum and a bulbous dome. The stairway is externally located on the first two floors but becomes
an internal spiral structure from the third floor until it reaches the muezzin's balcony.
According to travelers and early historians, Abd al-Malik bin Marwan built the Al-Ghawanimah
(Bani Ghanim) Minaret. Ibn Al-Faqih al-Hamadani (3-4 AH/9-10th century AD) in his
Mukhtasar Kitab, Al-Buldan and Shihab Al-Din Ahmad Ibn Muhammad Ibn 'Abd Rabbihi (3-4
AH/9-10th century AD) in his Kitab Al-Iqd Al-Farid describe the Al-Aqsa enclave before
Crusaders with four minarets.
It would be inferenced that the Ayyubids rebuilt the minaret after the crusaders destroyed it. The
Ayoubi judge Sharaf AdDin bin Abdul Rahman Bin AsSahib rebuilt the Bani Ghanim Gate
Minaret in 677 AH/1278 AC during the reign of Sultan Hussam Ad-Din Lajeen. It is named after
Shaykh Ghanim ibn Ali ibn Husayn, who was appointed the Shaykh of the Salahiyyah Madrasah
by Salahuddin Ayyubi.
It is a square-shaped minaret located near Bani Ghanim's Gate which is considered the most
decorated of Al-Aqsa's minarets. With a height of 38.5 meters, it is the highest minaret inside Al-
Aqsa with a staircase of 120 steps. The western tunnel, which was dug by the Israeli Occupation
Forces, has weakened the minaret's foundations which called for its renovation in 1422/2001.
The Ghawanima minaret, almost entirely built of stone, apart from a timber canopy over the
muezzin's gallery, is one of the sturdiest and highest constructions in the old city of Bayt al-
Maqdis. Its firm structure has left it nearly untouched by earthquakes, while its varied decoration

34. 34
had lent it a certain elegance as a counterpoint to its solidity.
The minaret is excavated into the naturally occurring layer of bedrock in the northwest corner of
the Haram. It is partitioned into several 'stories' by stone molding and muqarnas (stalactite)
galleries. The first two stories are wider and directly about the rock, forming the base of the
tower. Additional four stories, including the muezzin's gallery, are surmounted by a circular
drum and bulbous dome. The stairway is external on the first two floors but becomes an internal
spiral structure until it reaches the muezzin's gallery, from which the call for prayer was
performed.
Bab al Silsila Minaret
In 1329, Tankiz—the Mamluk governor of Syria—ordered the construction of a third minaret
called the Bab al-Silsila Minaret, located on the western border of the al-Aqsa Mosque. This
minaret, possibly replacing an earlier Umayyad minaret, is built in the traditional Syrian square
tower type and is made entirely out of stone. Since the 16th century, it has been a tradition that
the best muezzin ("reciter") of the adhan (the call to prayer), is assigned to this minaret because
the first call to each of the five daily prayers is raised from it, giving the signal for the muezzins
of mosques throughout Jerusalem to follow suit.
It is located next to the Zincirli (Silsile) Gate on the porches to the west of Masjid al-Aqsa. It is
on a square-shaped platform with four corners and has a closed balcony, which is kept standing
by stone columns. It has a ladder with 80 steps. The minaret is reached by Eşrefiye Madrasa. It
was repaired by the Islamic Foundation after the Jerusalem earthquake in h.1340 / m.1922.This
minaret is not allowed by the Israeli Occupation Forces to come to the minaret or approach by
the Israeli Occupation For the purpose of protecting the Jews who prayed for looking at the
Burak Wall.
Bab El-Silsila minaret is bordered by Haram's main entrance. As stated in the inscriptions, the
reconstruction has taken place, Sultan al-Nasir Muhammed was in the days, apparently by the
Governor of Syria when Amir Tankiz was establishing the madrasa el-Tankiziyya. It was
replaced by an Ottoman-style 'pencil point' spire, which was replaced by a smooth cutout and a
semicircular dome after the drum was damaged in the upper earthquake in the 19th century.
During the restoration of 1923-4, the existing canopy and lead coating on the dome were erected.
Minaret al-Asbat
The last and most notable minaret was built in 1367and is known as Minaret al-Asbat. It is
composed of a cylindrical stone shaft (built later by the Ottomans), which springs up from a
rectangular Mamluk-built base on top of a triangular transition zone. The shaft narrows above
the muezzin's balcony and is dotted with circular windows, ending with a bulbous dome. The
dome was reconstructed after the 1927 earthquake.
Proposed fifth Minaret: There are no minarets in the eastern portion of the mosque. However,
in 2006, King Abdullah II of Jordan announced his intention to build a fifth minaret
overlooking the Mount of Olives. The King Hussein Minaret is planned to be the tallest
structure in the Old City of Jerusalem. In 2018, Jordan Renewed Its Request to Build a
Fifth Minaret on the Temple Mount but to no avail by the Israelis.

35. 35
The al-Fakhariyya Minaret is the first of four minarets of Al-Aqsa Mosque, constructed in
1278./Bab al-Silsila minaret/Minaret Al-Asbat/ The Ghawanima Minaret, 1900(Last Pic)
Excavations at the Temple Mount
The Islamization of the Temple Mount is the historical process by which Muslim authorities
have sought to appropriate and Islamicize the Temple Mount for exclusive Muslim
use. Originally an Israelite and subsequently Jewish holy site, as the location of
the First and Second Temples, the site was subsequently the location of a Roman pagan
templea Byzantine churcha garbage dump and later the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa
Mosque. It is the holiest site in Judaism and the third holiest site in Sunni Islam.
Islamization of Palestine

36. 36
Dome of the Rock built over the Foundation Stone, the holiest spot for Jews./Fountain of Qayt Bay, constructed on the
mount in 1455.
At the time of the Muslim conquest, the Temple Mount is understood to have been the site of an
elaborate Byzantine church with an elaborate mosaic floor, some of the remains of which were
discovered in the 1930s by the British Mandate Antiquities Department. In 682 CE, 50 years
after Muhammad’s death, ‘Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr rebelled against the Caliph of Damascus,
conquered Mecca and stopped pilgrims from coming south to the Hajj in Mecca. Abd al-Malik,
the Umayyad Caliph, responded by creating a new holy site.[
He chose sura 17, verse 1, “Glory
to Him who caused His servant to travel by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest
Mosque, whose precincts We have blessed, in order to show him some of Our Signs, He is
indeed the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing.” And designated the Temple Mount in Jerusalem as the
"Farthest Mosque" mentioned in that verse.
According to those who hold this view, the Islamization of the Temple Mount climaxed at the
end of the seventh century, with the construction of the Dome of the Rock in the early 690s when
Abd al-Malik was developing his program of Islamization. It was built over the Foundation
Stone, the site of the historic Jewish Temple. The al-Aqsa mosque was built at the southern end
of the mount in the 8th-century. Throughout the entire period of the Muslim conquest until the
capture of Jerusalem in 1099, various structures were built on the mount including memorial
sites and gates. From the 13th-century onwards, after the Muslims had regained control of the
city, building projects in Jerusalem and around the Temple Mount sought to further establish the
city’s Islamic character.
In the early 19th-century, the Ottoman authorities began to permit non-Muslims to visit the
Temple Mount, a policy that continued under the British Mandate but ended with the Jordanian
conquest.
83

37. 37
Entrance to the new El-Marwani mosque.
In 1990, the waqf began construction of a series of outdoor minbar (pulpits) to create open-air
prayer areas for use on popular holy days. A monument to the victims of the Sabra and Shatila
massacre was also erected. In 1996, the Waqf began underground construction of the new el-
Marwani Mosque in the southeastern corner of the Temple Mount. The area was claimed by the
waqf as a space that served in earlier Islamic periods as a place of prayer, but some saw the move
as a part of a "political agenda"and a "pretext" for the Islamization of the underground space, and
believed it had been instigated to prevent the site being used a synagogue for Jewish prayers.
Due to the extreme political sensitivity of the site, no real archaeological excavations have ever
been conducted on the Temple Mount itself. Protests commonly occur whenever archaeologists
conduct projects near the Mount. This sensitivity has not, however, prevented the Muslim Waqf
from destroying archeological evidence on a number of occasions. Aside from visual observation
of surface features, most other archaeological knowledge of the site comes from the 19th-century
survey carried out by Charles Wilson and Charles Warren and others.
After the Six-Day War of 1967, Israeli archeologists began a series of excavations near the site at
the southern wall that uncovered finds from the Second Temple period through Roman,
Umayyad and Crusader times. Over the period 1970–88, a number of tunnels were excavated in
the vicinity, including one that passed to the west of the Mount and became known as the
Western Wall Tunnel, which was opened to the public in 1996. The same year the Waqf began
construction of a new mosque in the structures known since Crusader times as Solomon's
Stables. Many Israelis regarded this as a radical change of the status quo, which should not have
been undertaken without first consulting the Israeli government. The project was done without
attention to the possibility of disturbing historically significant archaeological material, with
stone and ancient artifacts treated without regard to their preservation.
In October 1999, the Islamic Waqf, and the Islamic Movement conducted an illegal dig which
inflicted much archaeological damage. The earth from this operation, which has archeological
wealth relevant to Jewish, Christian and Muslim history, was removed by heavy machinery and
unceremoniously dumped by trucks into the nearby Kidron Valley. Although the archeological
finds in the earth are already not in situ, this soil still contains great archeological potential. No
archeological excavation was ever conducted on the Temple Mount, and this soil was the only
archeological information that has ever been available to anyone. For this reason Israeli

38. 38
archaeologists Dr. Gabriel Barkay and Zachi Zweig established a project sifting all the earth in
this dump: the Temple Mount Sifting Project. Among finds uncovered in rubble removed from
the Temple Mount were:
 The imprint of a seal thought to have belonged to a priestly Jewish family
mentioned in the Old Testament's Book of Jeremiah.
 More than 4300 coins from various periods. Many of them are from the Jewish
revolt that preceded the destruction of the Second Temple by Roman legions in
70 CE emblazoned with the words "Freedom of Zion"
 Arrowheads shot by Babylonian archers 2,500 years ago, and others launched by
Roman siege machinery 500 years later.
Unique floor slabs of the 'opus sectile' technique that were used to pave the
Temple Mount courts. This is also mentioned in Josephus accounts and the
Babylonian Talmud.
In late 2002, a bulge of about 700 mm was reported in the southern retaining wall part of the
Temple Mount. A Jordanian team of engineers recommended replacing or resetting most of the
stones in the affected area. In February 2004, the eastern wall of the Mount was damaged by an
earthquake. Thedamage threatened to topple sections of the wall into the area known as
Solomon's Stables. A few days later, a portion of retaining wall, supporting the earthen ramp that
led from the Western Wall plaza to the Gate of the Moors on the Temple Mount, collapsed In
2007 the Israel Antiquities Authority started work on the construction of a temporary wooden
pedestrian pathway to replace the Mugrabi Gate ramp after a landslide in 2005 made it unsafe
and in danger of collapse The works sparked condemnation from Arab leaders.
In July 2007 the Muslim religious trust which administers the Mount began digging a 400-metre-
long, 1.5-metre-deep trench from the northern side of the Temple Mount compound to the Dome
of the Rock in order to replace 40-year-oldelectric cables in the area. Israeli archaeologists
accused the waqf of a deliberate act of cultural vandalism.
Southern Wall of Temple Mount, southwestern corner
Israelis allege that Palestinians are deliberately removing significant amounts of archaeological
evidence about the Jewish past of the site and claim to have found significant artifacts in the fill
removed by bulldozers and trucks from the Temple Mount. Since the Waqf is granted almost full
autonomy on the Islamic holy sites, Israeli archaeologists have been prevented from inspecting
the area, and are restricted to conducting excavations around the Temple Mount. Muslims allege
that the Israelis are deliberately damaging the remains of Islamic-era buildings found in their
excavations.

39. 39
The
Master Course Stone: Located between Warren's Gate and Wilson's Arch (which is located under the Gate of the Chain).
This stone is 44 feet long, 11.5 feet high, and 15 feet wide. It is estimated to weigh 570-630 tons.
This stone is the master course.
It was used to stabilize the smaller stones under it. It sits 20 feet above the Herodian street
level and 33 feet above the bedrock.
The master course extends to the left of the edge of this photo and past the right edge. The small
stones setting above were used to fill in where the Romans chipped away at it in 70 AD,
attempting to dismantle the whole Western Wall. They reached the level of thisMaster Course
Stone and stopped. The rectangular holes in the stone were bored centuries later to help secure
plaster to the wall in order to create an underground cistern to hold water for the homes above.