The Temple Mount (Haram-esh-Sharif)
Related Links:
"Then
Solomon began to build the Temple of
the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah.
It was on the threshing-floor of Araunah
the Jebusite, the place provided by
David, his father."
- 2
Chronicles 3:1
"Glory
be to Him who did take His servant
for a Journey by night from the Sacred
Sanctuary to the farthest Sanctuary,
whose precincts We did bless...."
- The
Koran, Sura Al-Isra’ 17:1
Overview
Blueprint of the Temple Mount
 |
The Temple Mount is the trapezoid-shaped, walled-in area in the southeastern corner of the Old City of Jerusalem. The four walls surrounding it date back – at least in their lower parts – to the time of the Second Jewish Temple, built at the end of first century B.C.E. These huge supporting walls, partly buried underground, were built around the summit of the eastern hill identified as
Mount Moriah
, the site traditionally viewed as the location of where Abraham offered his son Isaac as a sacrifice
and the known location of the two Jewish Temples. The gaps between the walls and the mount were filled in to create a large surface area around the Temple. Its eastern wall and the eastern half of its southern wall form part of the city wall on those sides. Deep valleys (now partly filled by debris) run outside the walls (northeast, east, south, west), thus separating the Temple Mount from and elevating it above its surroundings, both inside and outside the city.
The dimensions of the Temple Mount extend considerably beyond those given in the Mishnah (Mid. 2:1), which describes a square of approximately 250 × 250 m., referring only to the sanctified area within the Temple Mount as known today. The entire enclosure consists of an esplanade or courtyard, surrounding an elevated platform occupying approximately 23 dunams of land and decorated by arched structures around the Dome of the Rock. In each of the walls there are a number of gates. Some are ancient gates such as the Golden Gate which are blocked, and some are newer gates from the Arab conquest onward which are still in service.
Within the area of the Temple Mount there are about 100 different structures from various periods, among them great works of art and craftsmanship, including open Muslim prayer spots, arches, arched porticos, Muslim religious schools, minarets, and fountains (some for drinking and others for worshipers to wash their hands and feet before prayer). Underneath the present-day surface, in the "artificial" parts of the mount, there are 34 cisterns. There are also other substructures, the largest of which is known as "Solomon's stables."
History
The
Temple Mount (Heb., Har Habayit;
Arabic, Haram esh-Sharif, the Noble
Sanctuary), is identified in both Jewish
and Islamic
tradition as the area of Mount Moriah where Abraham offered
up his son in sacrifice (Genesis 22:1-18;
the Koran,
Sura Al-Saffat 37:102-110).
Here King
Solomon built the First Temple almost
3,000 years ago. It was destroyed by
the Babylonians in
586 BCE, but 70 years later Jews returning
from exile built the Second Temple on
the same site. King
Herod refashioned it into an edifice
of great splendor.
In
Muslim tradition, the place is also identified
as the "furthermost sanctuary"
(Arabic, masjid al-aksa) from which
the Prophet
Mohammed, accompanied by the Angel Gabriel,
made the Night Journey to the Throne of God
(The Koran,
Sura Al-Isra’ 17:1).
Following
the destruction of Jerusalem by
the Romans in
the year 70, the area of the Temple was
deliberately left in ruins (first by the Romans,
then by the Byzantines).
This desecration was not redressed until
the Muslim
conquest of the city by the Caliph
Omar ibn al-Khattab in 638. He ordered
the clearing of the site and the building
of a "house of prayer".
Some
50 years later, the Umayyad Caliph
Abd al-Malik built the Dome of the Rock
to enshrine the outcrop of bedrock believed
to be the "place of the sacrifice" on
Mount Moriah. He (or his son, the Caliph
al-Walid I) also built the large mosque
at the southern end of the Haram, which
came to be called al-Aksa after the Koranic
name attributed to the entire area.
During the 1948 Israeli War of Independence, Jordan retained control over Jerusalem's Old City and the Temple Mount and subsequently refused entry to the area to any Jewish person. During the 1967 Six-Day War, the Israeli Defense Forces conquered Jerusalem and liberated the Temple Mount, reclaiming Jewish control over the area for the first time since the destruction of the Second Temple.
Temple Mount Today
Today, an Islamic Waqf, or religious committee, manages the Temple Mount, though Israel provides security and upholds decisions made by the waqf about access to the site.
For Jews, visiting the Temple Mount is a very controversial subject- both in terms of religious allowance and because non-Muslim prayer is prohibited at the site. Although freedom of access to the site is enshrined as law, Israel does not allow non-Muslim prayer on the Mount so as not to offend Muslim worshippers. Beyond this, many rabbi's say that since the Jewish Temple's Holy of Holies stood near the center of today's Temple Mount, Jews are religiously forbidden from entering the area.
Arabs can enter the Temple Mount
through one of ten different Muslim-only gates from various sites
in the Old City. Tourists
and Jews are only allowed access to the site through the Mugrabi Gate
which is located just above to the left of the Kotel,
or Western Wall plaza.
Because of the sensitivity of the
Temple Mount, Israelis enforce strict security measures for Jews and
Muslims alike. For instance, during Friday prayers, any Muslim under
the age of 45 is prohibited from ascending the mount; a rule put in
place in response to young demonstrators throwing stones at Jewish
worshipers at the Western Wall. Additionally, no Jewish groups can
pray in the plazas surrounding the mosques or provoke the Muslims.
In 2005, the bridge leading to the Mugrabi Gate collapsed after a landslide occured on the site following heavy winter storms and two years later, Israel decided to build a temporary, detour bridge to ensure non-Muslim access to the Mount. Israel had also considered renovating the centuries-old bridge, but their decision was widely assailed by Palestinians as an attempt to destroy their historical site. Though this claim was patently false, Israel decided to not go ahead with construction so as not to inflame an already volatile region.
In 2011, the Western Wall Foundation forced the government to close the four-year old temporary bridge leading to the Mugrabi Gate for fear that its instability could lead to its collapsing.
Dome
of the Rock
 |
The
Dome of the Rock (Arabic, Qubbat
al-Sakhra) is one of the most recognizable architectural glories of the world. The design
of the building is basically Byzantine - double octagonal ambulatories
encircling the Holy Rock. A shrine and not a mosque, it is the third
holiest place in Islam after the Ka’aba in Mecca and the Prophet’s
Mosque in Medina.
The
Dome of the Rock is an architectural expression
of the ascendancy of Islam. The interior
glass mosaics in the drum and dome contain
representations of Byzantine imperial jewelry,
and one of the ornate inscriptions affirms
that God is One and not three; and that
Jesus was an apostle of God and His Word,
and not His son.
The
shrine stands on or near the approximate
site of the Jewish Temple (though scholars
disagree whether it was the Holy of Holies
or the Altar that stood on the site of
the rock). It has even been suggested that
the Temple building stood 80 meters further
north, on the site of the small 16th-century Qubbat
al-Arwah (Arabic, Dome of the Winds
or Spirits) on an east-west axis with the
present Golden Gate.
The
exterior of the Dome of the Rock has undergone
several restorations. The exterior tiles
were last restored in 1963; the gold-leafed
dome in 1994).
al-Aksa
Mosque
 |
The
al-Aksa Mosque, at the south end
of the Temple Mount platform, was last rebuilt in 1035 and has since
undergone several restorations - most recently in 1938-42; and again
beginning in 1969 to repair extensive damage from a fire deliberately
set by a deranged Christian tourist.
The
design of the building is that of a basilica
with a narrow central nave flanked by six
aisles (14 aisles in an earlier 8th-century
phase). The decoration of the mihrab (prayer
niche) in the south wall was a gift of
the Sultan Salah al-Din (Saladin). The
beautiful inlaid cedar wood minbar (pulpit),
also donated to the mosque by Salah al-Din
was destroyed in the 1969 fire.
A
stairway in front of the north entrance
to the al-Aksa Mosque leads down to a vaulted
passageway and the walled-up Hulda Gates,
which had been an entrance to the Temple
Mount Platform at the time of the Herodian
Second Temple.
During
the Mamluk and Ottoman periods
and until the mid-19th century, non-Muslims
were not permitted onto the Haram. The
first known exception was made by order
of the Ottoman Sultan in 1862, during the
visit of the Prince of Wales, the future
King Edward VII.
Sources: Israeli
Foreign Ministry; Visiting
the Temple Mount (by Lambert Dolphin); Wikipedia;
The Jerusalem Report (January
16, 2012)
Photos courtesy of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Lambert Dolphin, and אסף.צ |
