Temple Mount

Temple Mount

The Temple Mount (Template:Lang-he, Har haBáyit), also known as Mount Moriah and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary (Template:Lang-ar, al-haram al-qudsī ash-sharīf), is a religious site in the Old City of Jerusalem. Due to its importance for Judaism and Islam it is one of the most contested religious sites in the world.

The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism. Jewish Midrash holds that it was from here that the world expanded into its present form, and that this was where God gathered the dust he used to create the first man, Adam. The Torah records that it was here that God chose to rest his Divine Presence, and consequently two Jewish Temples were built at the site. According to Jewish tradition, the Third Temple will also be located here, and will be the final one. In recent times, due to difficulties in ascertaining the precise location of the Mount's holiest spot, many Jews will not set foot on the Mount itself.

In Islam, the site is revered as the destination of Islamic prophet Muhammad's journey to Jerusalem, and the location of his ascent to heaven, and is also associated with other local Muslim figures of antiquity. The site is the location of the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, the oldest extant Islamic structure in the world.

Both Israel and the Palestinian Authority claim sovereignty over the site, which remains a key issue in the Arab-Israeli conflict. A Muslim council, known as the Muslim Waqf, manages the site. The government enforces a controversial ban on prayer by non-Muslim visitors.

Location and dimensions

A reconstruction of Herod's Temple showing how the enclosed platform provided a base for the Jewish Temples which once stood at the site

The Temple Mount forms the northern portion of a very narrow spur of hill that slopes sharply 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 488m along the west, 470m along the east, 315m along the north and 280m along the south, giving a total area of approximately 150,000 m² (35.5 acres). The northern wall of the Mount, together with the northern section of the western wall, are 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 Bridge 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 visible due to the change in ground level, but it may be seen from beneath via the Western Wall Tunnel.

History

Early history

The hill is believed to have been inhabited since the 4th millennium BCE. Its southern section was walled at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE, in around 1850 BCE, by Canaanites who established a settlement there named Jebus. It was this city that King David captured in around 1000 BCE and renamed the City of David. David intended to build a sanctuary to God, as the first temple of the Israelites in Jerusalem, outside the city walls on the northern edge of the hill. He purchased the area, which the Bible refers to as Mount Moriah, from Araunah who owned the site. David's son Solomon completed the task of erecting the First Temple at the site in 960 BCE. Solomon’s Temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon in 586 BCE.

Persian, Hasmonean periods and Herod’s expansion

A stone (2.43x1 m) with Hebrew inscription "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

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 of Babylon in 586 BCE, construction of the Second Temple is understood to have begun under Cyrus in around 538 BCE, and 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 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, filling the necessary sections with earth and rubble. In addition to restoration of the Temple, its courtyards, and porticoes, Herod also built 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 by Roman emperor Vespasian, in 70 CE, under the command of his son and imperial heir, Titus.

Late Roman and Byzantine periods

During the time of the Byzantine Empire, it is believed that Constantine's mother, St. Helena, built a small church on the Mount in the 4th century, calling it the Church of St. Cyrus and St. John, later on enlarged and called the Church of the Holy Wisdom. The church was later destroyed and on its ruins the Dome of the Rock was built.

In 363, Emperor Julian II, on his way to engage Persia, stopped at the ruins of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. In keeping with his effort to foster religions other than Christianity, Julian ordered the Temple rebuilt. Sozomen (c. 400–450) in his Historia Ecclesiastica wrote this about the effort as did a personal friend of his, Ammianus Marcellinus:

"Julian thought to rebuild at an extravagant expense the proud Temple once at Jerusalem, and committed this task to Alypius of Antioch. Alypius set vigorously to work, and was seconded by the governor of the province; when fearful balls of fire, breaking out near the foundations, continued their attacks, till the workmen, after repeated scorchings, could approach no more: and he gave up the attempt."

The failure to rebuild the Temple has been ascribed to an earthquake, common in the region, and to the Jews' ambivalence about the project. Sabotage is a possibility, as is an accidental fire. Divine intervention was the common view among Christian historians of the time.

Archaeological evidence in the form of an elaborate mosaic floor similar to the one in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and multiple fragments of an elaborate marble Templom (chancel screen) prove that an elaborate Byzantine church or monastery stood on the Temple Mount in Byzantine times.

Muslim period

South-west qanatir, Temple Mount, Jerusalem, Israel.

Caliph Omar ordered a mosque to be constructed at the southeast corner, facing Mecca, near which the al-Aqsa Mosque was built 78 years later. The original building is now known to have been wooden and to have been constructed on the site of a Byzantine church with an elaborate mosaic floor. (The Persian conquest that immediately preceded the Arab conquest makes it uncertain who destroyed the church.)

In 691 an octagonal Muslim building topped by a dome was built by the Caliph Abd al Malik around the rock, for political reasons, in violation of the Caliph Omar's teachings. The shrine became known as the Dome of the Rock (Qubbat as-Sakhra قبة الصخرة). The dome itself was covered in gold in 1920. In 715 the Umayyads led by the Caliph al-Walid I, rebuilt the Temple's nearby Chanuyos into a mosque (see illustrations and detailed drawing) which they named al-Masjid al-Aqsa المسجد الأقصى, the al-Aqsa Mosque or in translation "the furthest mosque", corresponding to the Muslim belief of Muhammad's miraculous nocturnal journey as recounted in the Quran and hadith. The term al-Haram al-Sharif الحرم الشريف (the Noble Sanctuary) refers to the whole area that surrounds that Rock as was called later by the Mamluks and Ottomans.

The structures have been ruined or destroyed several times in earthquakes; the current version dates from the first half of the 11th century. 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).

In 1867, a team from the Royal Engineers, led by Lieutenant Charles Warren (later the London police commissioner of Jack the Ripper fame) and financed by the Palestine Exploration Fund (P.E.F.), discovered a series of tunnels beneath Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, some of which were directly underneath the headquarters of the Knights Templar. Various small artifacts were found which indicated that Templars had used some of the tunnels, though it is unclear who exactly first dug them. Some of the ruins which Warren discovered came from centuries earlier, and other tunnels which his team discovered had evidently been used for a water system, as they led to a series of cisterns.

Post 1967

During the 1967 Six-Day War Israel captured 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. A few days after the war over 200,000 Jews flocked to the Temple Mount and Western Wall in the first mass Jewish pilgrimage since the destruction of Temple in 69 C.E. However, the Israeli government subsequently left the Islamic wakf in control of the site, although it remains under Israeli sovereignty. Because of this set-up, the site has become a flash-point between Israel and the Muslim world, especially when violent acts are perpetrated at the site. Today Jews are banned from praying on the mount or doing anything that could disturb Muslims. However, as of late the police have been allowing religious Jews to let the ritual fringes hang freely outside their clothing. Similarly, complaints have been voiced by both sides against the other at construction and excavation works underneath and around the Temple Mount, which either side believe inflict damage to the antiquities or lead to the destabilisation of the retaining walls.

Management and access

An Islamic Waqf has managed the Temple Mount continuously since the Muslim reconquest of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1187. On 7 June 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. Israel agreed to leave administration of the site in the hands of the Wakf.

Although freedom of access was enshired in the law, as a security measure to prevent Intifada-related riots from destroying the site, the Israeli government currently enforce 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.

Current features

Due to the extreme political sensitivity of the site, few archaeological excavations have been conducted on the Temple Mount itself. Protests commonly occur whenever archaeologists conduct projects on or near the Mount. 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. This sensitivity has not prevented the Muslim Waqf from destroying archeological evidence on a number of occasions.

An additional flat platform is built above the portion of the hill rising above the general level of the top of the Temple Mount, and this upper platform is the location of the Dome of the Rock; the rock in question is the bedrock at the peak of the hill, just breaching the floor level of the upper platform. Beneath the rock is a natural cave known as the Well of Souls, originally accessible only by a narrow hole in the rock itself, 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.

The al-Kas ablution fountain for Muslim worshipers 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 a fountain (known as al-Kas), originally supplied with water via a long narrow aqueduct leading from pools at Bethlehem (colloquially known as Solomon's Pools), but now supplied from Jerusalem's water mains. There are several cisterns embedded in the lower platform, designed to collect rain water as a water supply. These have various forms and structures, seemingly built in different periods by different architects, 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 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.

The eastern set of Hulda gates

Robinson's arch, situated on the south-western flank, once supported a staircase which led to the Mount

The walls of the platform contain several gateways, all currently blocked. In the east wall is the Golden Gate, through which legend states the Jewish Messiah would enter Jerusalem. On the southern face are the Hulda Gates — the triple gate (which has three arches) and the double gate (which has two arches, and is partly obscured by a Crusader building); these were the entrance and exit (respectively) to the Temple Mount from Ophel (the oldest part of Jerusalem), and the main access to the Mount for ordinary Jews. In the western face, near the southern corner, is the Barclay's Gate — only half visible due to a building on the northern side. Also in the western face, hidden by later construction but visible via the recent Western Wall Tunnels, and only rediscovered by Warren, is Warren's Gate; the function of these western gates is obscure, but many Jews view Warren's Gate as particularly holy, due to its location due west of the Dome of the Rock (traditional belief considers the Dome of the Rock to have earlier been the location at which the Holy of Holies was placed).

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. 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.

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 King 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. 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.

The existing four minarets include three near the Western Wall and one near the northern wall. The first minaret was constructed on the southwest corner of the Temple Mount in 1278. The second was built in 1297 by order of a Mameluk king, the third by a governor of Jerusalem in 1329, and the last in 1367.

Changes and damage to existing structures

See also: Excavations of Al-Aqsa Mosque

In 1968–69, Israeli archeologists carried out excavations at the foot of the Temple Mount, immediately south of the al-Aqsa Mosque and opened two ancient Second Temple period tunnels there that penetrate beneath Al-Aqsa Mosque in the area of the Hulda and Single gates, penetrating five meters into one and 30 meters into another. "At the Temple Mount's south wall digging took place to uncover the Arabic Umayyad palaces and Crusader remains."

Over the period 1970–1988, the Israeli authorities excavated a tunnel passing immediately to the west of the Temple Mount, northwards from the Western Wall, that became known as the Western Wall Tunnel. They sometimes used mechanical excavators under the supervision of archeologists. Palestinians claim that both of these have caused cracks and structural weakening of the buildings in the Muslim Quarter of the city above. Israelis confirmed this danger:

"The Moslem authorities were concerned about the ministry tunnel along the Temple Mount wall, and not without cause. Two incidents during the Mazar dig along the southern wall had sounded alarm bells. Technion engineers had already measured a slight movement in part of the southern wall during the excavations...There was no penetration of the Mount itself or danger to holy places, but midway in the tunnel's progress large cracks appeared in one of the residential buildings in the Moslem Quarter, 12 meters above the excavation. The dig was halted until steel buttresses secured the building."

In 1981, Yehuda Meir Getz, rabbi of the Western Wall, had workmen open the ancient Warren's Gate, accessing the innards of the Temple Mount itself from the Western Wall Tunnel. Arabs on the Mount heard excavation noises from one of the more than two dozen cisterns on the Mount. Israeli Government officials, upon being notified of the unauthorized tunneling, immediately ordered the Warren's Gate resealed. The 2000-year-old stone gate was filled with cement, and remains cement-shut today. In 1996, Israel opened up an exit to the tunnel, which led to riots.

Archeologist Leon Pressouyre, a UNESCO envoy who visited the site in 1998 and claims to have been prevented from meeting Israeli officials (in his own words, "Mr Avi Shoket, Israel's permanent delegate to UNESCO, had repeatedly opposed my mission and, when I expressed the wish to meet with his successor, Uri Gabay, I was denied an appointment", accuses the Israeli government of culpably neglecting to protect the Islamic period buildings uncovered in Israeli excavations. More recently, Prof. Oleg Grabar of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University has replaced Leon Pressouyre as the UNESCO envoy to investigate the Israeli allegations that antiquities are being destroyed by the Waqf on the Temple Mount. Initially, Grabar was denied access to the buildings by Israel for over a year, allegedly due to the threat of violence resulting from the al-Aqsa Intifada. His eventual conclusion was that the monuments are deteriorating largely because of conflicts over who is responsible for them, the Jordanian government, the local Palestinian Authority or the Israeli government.

In autumn 2002, a bulge of about 700 mm was reported in the southern retaining wall part of the Temple Mount. It was feared that part of the wall might seriously deteriorate or even collapse. The Waqf would not permit detailed Israeli inspection but came to an agreement with Israel that led to a team of Jordanian engineers inspecting the wall in October. They recommended repair work that involved replacing or resetting most of the stones in the affected area which covers 2,000 square feet (200 m²) and is located 25 feet (8 m) from the top of the wall. Repairs were completed before January 2004. The restoration of 250 square meters of wall cost 100,000 Jordanian dinars ($140,000).

On February 11, 2004, the eastern wall of the Temple Mount was damaged by an earthquake. The damage threatens to topple sections of the wall into the area known as Solomon's Stables.

On February 16, 2004, a few days after the earthquake, a portion of a stone retaining wall, supporting the ramp that leads from the Western Wall plaza to the Gate of the Moors on the Temple Mount, collapsed.

The southern wall of Temple Mount

Alterations to antiquities

In 1996 the Waqf began construction in the structures known since Crusader times as Solomon's Stables, and in the Eastern Hulda Gate passageway, allowed the area to be (re)opened as a mosque called the Marwani Musalla (claimed by Israel to be new, by Palestinians to be restored from pre-Crusader times, having been built by a calif named Marwani, and the Crusaders having turned it into stables) capable of accommodating 7,000 individuals. Many Israelis regard this as a radical change of the status quo under which the site had been administered since the Six-Day War which should not have been undertaken without consulting the Israeli government. Palestinians regard these objections as irrelevant. Though the building was built at the same time as the Al-Aqsa Mosque, whether the building had been a mosque before Crusader times or not is open to discussion.

File:Temple mount works.jpg

The ongoing construction work taking place atop the Temple Mount.

In 1997, the Western Hulda Gate passageway was converted into another mosque. In November 1999, a buried Crusader-era door was reopened as an emergency exit for the Mosque located within the Solomon's Stables area, opening an excavation claimed by Israel to be 18,000 square feet (1,700 m²) in size and up to 36 feet (11 m) deep. According to The New York Times, an emergency exit had been urged upon the Waqf by the Israeli police, and its necessity was acknowledged by the Israel Antiquities Authority.

In early 2001, Israeli police said they observed bulldozers destroying an ancient arched structure located adjacent to the eastern wall of the Temple Mount in the course of construction during which 6,000 square meters of the Temple Mount were dug up by tractors, paved, and declared to be open air mosques, which is assumed to have intermixed the underlying strata. Some of the earth and rubble removed was dumped in the El-Azaria and in the Kidron Valleys, and some of it (as of September 2004) remained in mounds on the site. The excavation and removal of earth with minimal archaeological supervision became an issue of controversy, with some scholars such as Jon Seligman, Hershel Shanks and Eilat Mazar claiming that valuable history material is being destroyed and others, such as Dan Bahat and Meir Ben-Dov, disputing this assessment. The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) inspected the material and declared it of no archaeological value, but a group called the Committee for the Prevention of Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount campaigned against this position and in September 2004 obtained a temporary injunction against the IAA and the Muslim Waqf preventing them from removing the material which still lies in mounds on the site. Both sides accuse the other of having political motivation.

The Ir David Foundation is currently funding the Israel Antiquities Authority sifting of the rubble and a sampling of its finds of archaeologically significant items are available on the internet.

Some claim that this will lead to the destabilization of the retaining walls of the Temple Mount, of which the Western Wall is one, and/or the al-Aqsa Mosque, and allege that one side is doing so deliberately to cause the collapse of the sacred sites of the other. 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. Muslims allege that the Israelis are deliberately damaging the remains of Islamic-era buildings found in their excavations.

Since the Waqf is granted almost full autonomy on the Islamic holy sites, Israeli archaeologists have been prevented from inspecting the area; they have, however, conducted several excavations around the Temple Mount.

Religious attitudes

In Judaism

The Foundation Stone

Jewish connection and veneration to the site stems from the fact that it contains the Foundation Stone, which according to 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 Aravnah 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 that the nations of the world cannot taunt Israel and say ‘you have stolen them.’ it being purchased "for its full price" by David. David wanted to construct a sanctuary there, but this was left to his son Solomon, who completed the task in c950 BCE with the construction of the First Temple.

Due to Jewish religious restrictions on entering the most sacred areas of the Temple Mount, the Western Wall, a retaining wall the Temple Mount and remnant of the Second Temple structure, is considered the holiest accessible site for Jews to pray. Jewish texts record that the Mount will be the site of the Third Temple, which will be rebuilt with the coming of the Jewish Messiah.

Jewish religious law concerning entry to the site

During Temple times, entry to the Mount was limited by a complex set of purity laws. Maimonides wrote that it was only permitted to enter the site to fulfill a religious precept. After the destruction of the Temple there was discussion as to whether the site, bereft of the Temple, still maintained its holiness or not. Jewish codifiers accepted the opinion of Maimonides who ruled that the holiness of the Temple sanctified the site for eternity and consequently the restrictions on entry to the site are still currently in force. Most Jews will not set foot on the Mount so as not to incur the severe punishment of karet, spiritual death. There is debate over whether reports that Maimonides himself ascended the Mount are reliable. Some early scholars however, claim that entry onto certain areas of the Mount are 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 accessed the site, but these visits may have been made under duress.

File:Sign at entrance to Temple .jpg

1978 sign warning against entry to the Mount

Opinions of modern-day rabbis concerning entry to the site

In August 1967 after Israel's capture of the Mount, the chief rabbis of Israel, Isser Yehuda Unterman and Yitzhak Nissim, together with other leading rabbis, asserted that "For generations we have warned against and refrained from entering any part of the Temple Mount." Rabbinical consensus in the Religious Zionist stream of Orthodox Judaism continue to hold that it is forbidden for Jews to enter any part of the Temple Mount and in January 2005 a declaration was signed confirming the 1967 decision.

All Haredi rabbis are also of the opinion that the Mount is off limits to Jews and non-Jews alike. Their opinions against entering the Temple Mount are based on the danger of entering the hallowed area of the Temple courtyard and the impossibility of fulfilling the ritual requirement of cleansing oneself with the ashes of a red heifer. The boundaries of the areas which are completely forbidden, while having large portions in common, are delineated differently by various rabbinic authorities.

There are a minority of right-wing national religious rabbis who encourage visits to certain parts of the Mount, which they believe are permitted according to most medieval rabbinical authorities. One of them, Shlomo Goren, states that it is possible that Jews are even allowed to enter the heart of the Dome of the Rock, according to Jewish Law of Conquest. These authorities advise ablution in a mikva prior to ascending the Mount.

The law committee of the Masorti movement in Israel has issued two responsa (a body of written decisions and rulings given by legal scholars) on the subject, both holding that Jews may visit the permitted sections of the Temple Mount. One responsa allows such visits, another encourages them.

In Islam

Facade of the Al-Aqsa Mosque

In Islam, the Mount is called al-haram al-qudsī ash-sharīf, meaning the Noble Sanctuary. Muslims view the site as being one of the earliest and most noteworthy places of worship of God. For a few months in the early stages of Islam, Muhammad instructed his followers to face the Mount during prayer, as the Jews did. Later identification of the Mount being the site of the "Farthest Mosque", (mentioned in the Koran as the location of Muhammad's miraculous nocturnal journey), gave rise to various Hadiths which emphasised the virtue of praying at the site. Today the area is regarded by the majority of Muslims as the third holiest site in Islam. This being the case, Muslims are resolute in calling for recognition of their exclusive rights over the site and demand that it be wholly transferred over to Muslim sovereignty.

Some Muslims deny any association with the Mount to the former Jewish Temple which stood at the site. Historically, however, Muslims acknowledged the Mount as being the site of the Temple of Solomon. Shaykh Prof. Abdul Hadi Palazzi suggests that the Quran expressly recognizes that Temple Mount in Jerusalem plays for Jews the same role that Mecca does for Muslims.

In Christianity

The Temple is mentioned many times in the New Testament (for example, Mark 11:11) in addition to the Old Testament. In these scriptures, Jesus prays there (Mark 11:25–26) and chases away money changers and other merchants from the courtyard, turning over their tables and accusing them of desecrating a sacred place with secular ways (see Jesus and the Money Changers). Jesus also predicts the destruction of the Second Temple (Matthew 24:2) and allegorically compares his body to a temple that will be torn down and raised up again in three days. This idea, of the temple as the body of Christ, became a rich and multi-layered theme in patristic and medieval Christian thought (where temple/body can be the heavenly body of Christ, the ecclesial body of the Church, and the Eucharistic body on the altar).

Though some Christians believe that the temple will be reconstructed before, or concurrent with, the Second Coming of Christ, the Temple Mount is largely unimportant to the beliefs and worship of most Christians. To wit, 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 Mt. Gerazim, to which Jesus replies, "neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father... But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth."

Recent events

Date	Event	Notes
March 30, 2005	Vandalism to the southern wall	The word "Allah" in approximately a foot tall Arabic script was found newly carved into the ancient stones. The vandalism was attributed to a team of Jordanian engineers and Palestinian laborers in charge of strengthening that section of the wall. The discovery caused outrage among Israeli archaeologists and many Jews were angered by the graffiti at Judaism's holiest site.
Sukkot, 2006	Proposed synagogue	Uri Ariel, a member of the Knesset from the National Union party (a right wing opposition party) ascended to the mount, and said that he is preparing a plan where a synagogue will be built on the mount. His suggested synagogue would not be built instead of the mosques but in a separate area in accordance with rulings of 'prominent rabbis.' He said he believed that this will be correcting a historical injustice and that it is an opportunity for the Muslim world to prove that it is tolerant to all faiths.
October 14, 2006	Plans for new minaret	Plans are mooted to build a new minaret on the mount, the first of its kind for 600 years. King Abdullah II of Jordan announced a competition to design a fifth minaret for the walls of the Temple Mount complex. He said it would "reflect the Islamic significance and sanctity of the mosque". The scheme, estimated to cost £200,000, are for a seven-sided tower — after the seven-pointed Hashemite star — and at 42 metres (130 ft), it would be 3.5 metres (11 ft) taller than the next-largest minaret. The minaret would be constructed on the eastern wall of the Temple Mount near the Golden Gate.
February 2007	Mugrabi Gate ramp reconstruction	After a landslide in 2005 made the earthen ramp leading to the Mugrabi Gate unsafe and in danger of collapse, the Israel Antiquities Authority started work on the construction of a temporary wooden pedestrian pathway to the Temple Mount. The works sparked condemnation from Arab leaders with a Syrian Foreign Ministry official stating that "Syria strongly condemns these violations, and considers them a blatant affront to Muslim waqfs and the feelings of Muslims worldwide." Similar views were made by Jordan's King Abdullah. However Jerusalem District Police Chief Ilan Franko said that the works were coordinated in advance with the Muslim Waqf that oversees the Temple Mount. A recent UNESCO ruling on the incident cleared Israel of wrongdoing, saying that they had acted with professionalism, but nonetheless advised the continued cessation of construction until more concerned parties could be consulted, so that negative sentiments would not be inflamed.
May 2007	Right-wing Jews ascend the Mount	A group of right-wing Religious Zionist rabbis entered the Temple Mount. This elicited widespread criticism from other religious Jews and from secular Israelis, accusing the rabbis of provoking the Arabs. An editorial in the newspaper Haaretz accused the rabbis of 'knowingly and irresponsibly bringing a burning torch closer to the most flammable hill in the Middle East,' and noted that rabbinical consensus in both the Haredi and the Religious Zionist worlds forbids Jews from entering the Temple Mount. On May 16, Rabbi Avraham Shapiro, former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel and rosh yeshiva of the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva, reiterated that it is forbidden for Jews to enter the Temple Mount. The Litvish Haredi newspaper Yated Ne'eman, which is controlled by leading Litvish Haredi rabbis including Rabbi Yosef Sholom Eliashiv and Rabbi Nissim Karelitz, accused the rabbis of transgressing a decree punishable by 'death through the hands of heaven.'
July 2007	Temple Mount cable replacement controversy	The Waqf began digging a ditch from the northern side of the Temple Mount compound to the Dome of the Rock as a prelude to infrastructure work in the area. Although the dig was approved by the police, it generated protests from archaeologists.

Panorama

Panorama of the Temple Mount, seen from the Mount of Olives

See also

• Jerusalem in Judaism
• Jerusalem in Christianity
• Jerusalem in Islam
• Excavations of Al-Aqsa Mosque
• Gates of the Temple Mount
• Committee for the Prevention of Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount

References

Books

• Finkelstein, Louis; Horbury, William; Davies, William David; Sturdy, John. The Cambridge History of Judaism, Cambridge University Press, 1999. ISBN 0521243777
• Gonen, Rivka. Contested Holiness, KTAV Publishing House, 2003. ISBN 0881257990
• Lundquist, John. The Temple of Jerusalem, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007. ISBN 0275983390
• Negev, Avraham & Gibson, Shimon. Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005. ISBN 0826485715

External links

General

• Forbidden sites on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem (+Video) Video from the Mosques and Solomon Stables
• Temple Mount Photo Gallery
• Temple Mount Presentation (Forbidden Sites - Exclusive Photos) Exclusive Photos from the forbidden sites on the Temple Mount
• A vision for the Temple Mount
• Friends of Al-Aqsa Defense of Al-Aqsa.
• Temple Mount, Jerusalem Watercolors from the Temple Mount, Jerusalem, by Kosinski
• The Temple Mount on foot Temple Mount on foot
• 2000 Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount — From Ariel Sharon's Life Story, a biography
• The Haram al-Sharif: An Essay in Interpretation by Oleg Grabar (discussing the history of the name "Haram al-Sharif")
• Protection of Holy Places Law, 1967 (Government of Israel)
• The Temple Mount (from US-Israel.org)
• The Temple Mount in Jerusalem (Christian source)
• Noble Sanctuary: The Online Guide to Al-Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem
• Pictures of the Temple Mount
• Entering the Temple Mount In Our Time, Masorti movement responsa
• Schestkow Temple Mount photos
• Jerusalem Photos
• Temple Mount and possible site of the 3rd Jewish Temple
• Liberation of the Temple Mount and Western Wall by Israel Defense Forces — Historic Live Broadcast on Voice of Israel Radio, June 7, 1967
• Rabbis visiting Temple Mount 'hope for an awakening

Archeological controversy

• Jerusalem's Temple Mount Flap (from Archaeology magazine)
• The Archeological Destruction on the Temple Mount (from "Israel's War Against Terror")
• The Temple Mount Archaeological Destruction (with photographs of the construction) from Committee for the Prevention of Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount
• The Destruction of the Temple Mount Antiquities (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
• Islamic Research Academy on archeological damage
• Friends of Al-Aqsa Journal (on archaeological damage)
• Controversy over exact location of the Temples
• The Temples of Jerusalem in Islam Qur'anic and other references analyzed, by Martin Kramer
• Temple Mount Antiquities Salvage Operation
• Temple Mount Destruction (fromBiblical Archaeology Review)

Mugrabi Gate ramp reconstruction

• 11 arrested in riots following J'lem works
• Jordan attacks Israel over mosque excavations
• live broadcast from The Israel Antiquities Authority's website of the Excavation at the Mughrabi Ramp
• Israel blocks Jerusalem protest
• UNESCO Report