naviquan

Country: Israel (6)
Location Info:  City: Jerusalem
Idea About: place (99)
Type of Travel: art and culture (37) | history (63) | religion (21)
Features: mountain (29) | pilgrimage (24) | religious architecture (19) | ruin (26) | sacred place and sanctuary (40) | shrine (15)
Recommended for: senior (53) | single (48) | student (49)
Budget: mainstream (85) | expensive (42)
Trip Length: several hours (11) | one day (26)
Region: Middle East (9)

The Temple Mount (known in the bible as Mount Zion or Mount Moriah and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary) is located in Jerusalem, Israel. The first Temple was built at the northern point of a very narrow ridge of the mountain that slopes sharply from north to south rising above the Kidron Valley in the east and Tyropoeon Valley in the west. Its peak reaches a height of 2,428 ft (740 m) above sea level.

Before the Temple construction the site belonged to the Jebusites, a Canaanite tribe who inhabited and built a settlement Jebus later Jerusalem. The Canaanites were conquered by King David in 1003 BC. The tribe owned the threshing floor (a specially flattened surface, usually paved and circular in shape where a farmer would thresh the grain harvest) on the summit of Mount Moriah that King David purchased and used as the site for erecting an altar to God.

The first temple was built by Solomon, the son of David, in 957 BC. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC. The second Temple was constructed under the patronage of Zerubbabel in 516 BC and destroyed by the Roman Empire in 70 AD. The Bible says that the Third and final Temple will be built on the Temple Mount.

In around 19 BC, Herod the Great extended the Mount natural plateau by enclosing the area with four massive retaining walls and filling the space with dirt and flattening the ground. This artificial platform has a trapezium shape. The west side of the Temple Mount wall measures 1601 feet (488 m) long , 1542 feet (470 m) - the east side, 1033 feet (315 m) - the north and 919 feet (280 m) - the south. The total area of the platform is approximately 35.5 acres (150,000 sqm). The residential buildings nowadays hide the northern wall of the Mount and the northern section of the western wall.

The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Christianity and Judaism. Due to its sanctity, many Jews do not walk on the Mount itself, to avoid unintentionally entering the area where the Holy of Holies stood. It was from the Holy of Holies that the High Priest communicated directly with God.

Sunni Muslims consider The Temple Mount to be the third holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina. Named as the Noble Sanctuary (Haram esh-Sharif ) and the point of destination of Muhammad's journey to Jerusalem where he believed to ascent to Heaven, the site is also associated with Jewish biblical prophets who are also honored in Islam. After the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem in 637 AD, the construction of the al-Aqsa Mosque and a shrine to protect the "holy rock" called Dome of the Rock were authorized on the site by Umayyad Caliphs (the second of the four major Arab caliphates established after the death of Muhammad ruled by the Umayyad dynasty). The Dome (considered to be the oldest Islamic structures in the world) was completed in 692 AD. The Al Aqsa Mosque was built at the southern point of the Mount ridge, facing Mecca. The Dome of the Rock is close to the area where the Bible says the Holy Temple be rebuilt.

back to top