Temple Mount

The Temple Mount or al-Haram al-Sharif (Biblical Hebrew: הַר הַבַּיִת, romanized: Har hab-Bayiṯ, Arabic: الحَرَم الشَّرِيف, romanized: al-Ḥaram aš-Šarīf or الأَقْصَى, al-Aqṣā) is an elevated plateau in the Old City of Jerusalem that comprises the Islamic religious compound known as al-Aqsa, which includes the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Historically the location of two successive Jewish temples, the area has been venerated as a holy site for thousands of years including in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The present site is a flat plaza surrounded by retaining walls (including the Western Wall), which were originally built by Herod the Great in the first century BCE to expand the Second Temple. The plaza is dominated by two monumental structures originally built during the Rashidun and early Umayyad caliphates after the 637 first Muslim conquest of Jerusalem: the Qibli Mosque of al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock, near the center of the hill, which was completed in 692, making it one of the oldest extant Muslim structures in the world. The Herodian walls and gates, with additions from the late Byzantine, early Muslim, Mamluk, and Ottoman periods, flank the site, which can be reached through eleven gates, ten reserved for Muslims and one for non-Muslims, with guard posts of the Israel Police in the vicinity of each. The courtyard is surrounded on the north and west by two Mamluk-era porticos or arcades (arwiqa) and four minarets. The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism, and where the Temples in Jerusalem once stood. According to Jewish and Samaritan tradition and scriptures, the first Temple was Solomon's Temple, built by King Solomon, the son of King David, in 957 BCE, and was destroyed along with the city itself by the Neo-Babylonian Empire in the Siege of Jerusalem, in 587 BCE....