The Temple Mount: 3,000 Years on One Hilltop

No place on earth packs more history into a smaller space than the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, called the Haram al-Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary, by Muslims.

Jewish tradition identifies the hill as Mount Moriah, where Abraham bound Isaac. Around the tenth century BCE, according to the Bible, King Solomon built the First Temple here. It stood for some four centuries until the Babylonians destroyed it in 586 BCE.

Exiles returning from Babylon built a modest Second Temple around 516 BCE. It was rededicated by the Maccabees, and then King Herod transformed it from about 20 BCE, building the huge platform that still defines the site today. Its retaining walls used stones weighing many tons; the Western Wall is a section of that retaining wall. This was the Temple Jesus knew. The Romans destroyed it in 70 CE, and for centuries the platform lay largely in ruins.

After the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem in the seventh century, the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik built the Dome of the Rock, completed around 691-692, over the rock considered by Jewish tradition to be the foundation of the world and by Muslims as the place of the Prophet Muhammad's Night Journey. The Al-Aqsa Mosque on the southern end followed soon after. Together they make the site the third holiest in Islam.

The Crusaders turned the Dome into a church and Al-Aqsa into the headquarters of the Knights Templar, who took their name from it. Saladin restored both as Muslim shrines in 1187, and the Ottomans added the famous tiles in the sixteenth century.

Today the compound is administered by the Islamic Waqf, non-Muslims may visit the platform at set hours but may not pray there, and the Western Wall below is the holiest place where Jews pray. Your guide on our Holy Jerusalem or Jewish Jerusalem tours will help you understand every layer. Contact us to plan your day.