Editing Temple Mount (section)

== Features ==

=== Courtyard ===
The large courtyard (''[[sahn]]'')<ref name="Prawer"/> can host more than 400,000 worshippers, making it one of the [[List of largest mosques|largest mosques in the world]].<ref name=NG/>

====Upper platform====
The upper platform surrounds the [[Dome of the Rock]], beneath which lies the [[Well of Souls]], originally accessible only by a narrow hole in the [[Sakhrah]], the foundation stone on which the Dome of the Rock site and after which it is named, until the [[Crusades|Crusaders]] dug a new entrance to the cave from the south.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dome of the Rock Platform – Madain Project (en) – Well of Souls |url=https://madainproject.com/dome_of_the_rock_platform#well-of-souls |access-date=2023-04-24 |website=madainproject.com}}</ref> The platform is accessible via eight staircases, each of which is topped by a free-standing [[Arcade (architecture)|arcade]] known in Arabic as the [[Al-Mawazin|''qanatir'' or ''mawazin'']]. The arcades were erected in different periods from the 10th to 15th centuries.<ref name=":21">{{Cite book |last=Murphy-O'Connor |first=Jerome |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KKIUDAAAQBAJ |title=The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide from Earliest Times to 1700 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-19-923666-4 |page=98 |language=en}}</ref>

There is also a smaller domed building on the upper platform, to the east of the Dome of the Rock, known as the [[Dome of the Chain]] (''Qubbat al-Sisila'' in Arabic).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dome of the Chain – Madain Project (en) |url=https://madainproject.com/dome_of_the_chain |access-date=2023-04-24 |website=madainproject.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Dome of the Rock Platform – Madain Project (en) – Dome of the Rock |url=https://madainproject.com/dome_of_the_rock_platform#dome-of-the-rock |access-date=2023-04-24 |website=madainproject.com}}</ref> Its exact origin and purpose is uncertain but historical sources indicate it was built under the reign of Abd al-Malik, the same Umayyad caliph who built the Dome of the Rock.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rosen-Ayalon |first=Myriam |date=1989 |title=The Early Islamic Monuments of Al-Ḥaram Al-Sharīf: An Iconographic Study |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43588798 |journal=Qedem |volume=28 |pages=III–73 |jstor=43588798 |issn=0333-5844}}</ref> Two other small domes stand to the northwest of the Dome of the Rock. The Dome of the Ascension (''Qubbat al-Miraj'' in Arabic) has an inscription with a date corresponding to 1201 CE.<ref name=":21" /><ref name=":23">{{Cite book |last=Bahat |first=Dan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-qQUCgAAQBAJ&dq=jerusalem+temple+mount+dome+of+the+ascension&pg=PA86 |title=The History of Jerusalem: The Early Muslim Period (638–1099) |publisher=New York University Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-8147-6639-2 |editor-last=Prawer |editor-first=Joshua |pages=86 |language=en |editor-last2=Ben-Shammai |editor-first2=Haggai}}</ref> It may have been a former Crusader structure, possibly a [[baptistery]], that was repurposed at this time,<ref name=":23" /> or it may be a structure that was built after [[Saladin]]'s capture of the city and reused some Crusader-era materials, including its columns.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mourad |first=Sulaiman A. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tBUHEAAAQBAJ&dq=jerusalem+%22dome+of+the+ascension%22&pg=PA396 |title=The Umayyad World |publisher=Routledge |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-317-43005-6 |editor-last=Marsham |editor-first=Andrew |pages=396 |language=en |chapter=Umayyad Jerusalem: from a religious capital to a religious town}}</ref> Per its name, this dome commemorates the spot where, according to some, Muhammad ascended to heaven.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Boehm |first1=Barbara Drake |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ay30DAAAQBAJ&dq=jerusalem+%22dome+of+the+ascension%22&pg=PA275 |title=Jerusalem, 1000–1400: Every People Under Heaven |last2=Holcomb |first2=Melanie |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-58839-598-6 |language=en}}</ref> The Dome of the Spirits or Dome of the Winds (''Qubbat al-Arwah'' in Arabic) stands a little further north and is dated to the 16th century.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Goldhill |first=Simon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S5svEAAAQBAJ&dq=jerusalem+qubbat+al-arwah&pg=PA348 |title=Jerusalem: City of Longing |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-674-26385-7 |pages=110 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":21" />
[[File:Jerusalem Temple Mount (43195424811).jpg|thumb|Southern edge of the upper platform, with view of the Summer Pulpit (left) and the southern ''qanatir'' behind it]]
In the southwest corner of the upper platform is a quadrangular structure which includes a portion topped by another dome. It is known as the Dome of Literature (''Qubba Nahwiyya'' in Arabic) and dated to 1208.<ref name=":21" /> Standing further east, close to one of the southern entrance arcades, is a stone ''[[minbar]]'' known as the "Summer Pulpit" or Minbar of Burhan al-Din, used for open-air prayers. It appears to be an older [[Ciborium (architecture)|ciborium]] from the Crusader period, as attested by its sculptural decoration, which was then reused under the [[Ayyubid dynasty|Ayyubids]]. Sometime after 1345, a Mamluk judge named Burhan al-Din (d. 1388) restored it and added a stone staircase, giving it its present form.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Burgoyne |first=Michael Hamilton |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qR_qAAAAMAAJ |title=Mamluk Jerusalem: An Architectural Study |publisher=British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem by the World of Islam Festival Trust |year=1987 |isbn=978-0-905035-33-8 |pages=319–20 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Neci̇poğlu |first=Gülru |date=2008 |title=The Dome of the Rock as Palimpsest: ʻabd Al-Malik's Grand Narrative and Sultan Süleyman's Glosses |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27811114 |journal=Muqarnas |volume=25 |pages=17–105 |doi=10.1163/22118993_02501004 |jstor=27811114 |issn=0732-2992}}</ref>

==== Lower platform ====
[[File:TM washing.JPG|thumb|The ''al-Kas'' ablution fountain for Muslim worshippers 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 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://campsci.com/museum/images/43e.jpg |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020718222845/http://campsci.com/museum/images/43e.jpg |url-status=dead |archive-date=2002-07-18 |title=Photograph of the northern wall area |access-date=2018-04-05}}</ref>

The lower platform also houses an [[sebil (fountain)|ablution fountain]] (known as ''al-Kas''), originally supplied with water via a long narrow aqueduct leading from the so-called ''[[Solomon's Pools]]'' near [[Bethlehem]], but now supplied from Jerusalem's water mains.

There are several [[cisterns]] beneath the lower platform, designed to collect rainwater as a water supply. These have various forms and structures, seemingly built in different periods, 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<ref>{{cite web|url=http://campsci.com/museum/images/map.gif |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011214121205/http://campsci.com/museum/images/map.gif |url-status=dead |archive-date=2001-12-14 |title=Wilson's map of the features under the Temple Mount |access-date=2018-04-05}}</ref>):
* 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),<ref name=Kaufman>{{cite news
|url = https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/jpost/access/99716364.html?dids=99716364:99716364&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=May+12%2C+1991&author=Asher+Kaufman&pub=Jerusalem+Post&edition=&startpage=13&desc=THE+TEMPLE+SITE
|title = The Temple Site
|last = Kaufman
|first = Asher
|date = May 23, 1991
|work = [[The Jerusalem Post]]
|format = Abstract
|page = 13
|access-date = March 4, 2007
|quote = The most important findings of the superposition of the Second Temple on the Temple area are that the Dome of the Rock was not built on the site of the Temple, and that the Temple was taper-shaped on the western side, a form hitherto unknown to the scholars.
|archive-date = September 30, 2007
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070930220816/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/jpost/access/99716364.html?dids=99716364:99716364&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=May+12,+1991&author=Asher+Kaufman&pub=Jerusalem+Post&edition=&startpage=13&desc=THE+TEMPLE+SITE
|url-status = dead
}}</ref> or with the ''[[Molten Sea|bronze sea]]''.
* Cistern 5 (located under the southeastern corner of the upper platform){{snd}}a long and narrow chamber, with a strange anti-clockwise curved section at its northwestern 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 northwestern end.<ref name=Patrich>{{cite news | url = http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3362927,00.html
|title = Researcher says found location of the Holy Temple | date = February 9, 2007
|newspaper = [[Ynetnews]] | access-date = March 4, 2007 | quote = Archaeology Professor Joseph Patrich uncovered a large water cistern that points, in his opinion, to the exact location of the altar and sanctuary on the Temple Mount. According to his findings, the rock on which the Dome of the Rock is built is outside the confines of the Temple.}}</ref>
* Cistern 8 (located just north of the al-Aqsa Mosque){{snd}}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,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://campsci.com/museum/images/48c.jpg |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020719185830/http://campsci.com/museum/images/48c.jpg |url-status=dead |archive-date=2002-07-19 |title=Under the Temple Mount |access-date=2018-04-05}}</ref> 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){{snd}}known as the ''Well of the Leaf'' due to its leaf-shaped plan, is also rock hewn.
* Cistern 11 (located east of cistern 9){{snd}}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 [[Córdoba, Spain|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.

=== Gates ===
{{Main|Gates of the Temple Mount}}
[[File:Hulda gates.jpg|thumb|The eastern set of Hulda gates]]
[[File:RobinsonsArchMay2009.jpg|thumb|[[Robinson's Arch]], situated on the southwestern flank, once supported a staircase that led to the Mount.]]
:'''Sealed gates'''
The retaining walls of the platform contain several gateways, all now blocked. In the eastern wall is [[Golden Gate (Jerusalem)|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 (the "house of Abu Sa'ud") 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. The current location of the Dome of the Rock is considered one of the possible locations where the [[Holy of Holies]] was placed; numerous alternative opinions exist, based on study and calculations, such as those of Tuvia Sagiv.

Warren was able to investigate the inside of these gates. Warren's Gate and the Golden Gate simply head toward the centre of the Mount, giving access to the surface by steps.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://campsci.com/museum/images/38g.jpg |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020719154856/http://campsci.com/museum/images/38g.jpg |url-status=dead |archive-date=2002-07-19 |title=Photograph of the inside of the Golden Gate |access-date=2018-04-05}}</ref> Barclay's Gate is similar, but abruptly turns south as it does so; the reason for this is 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 al-Aqsa Mosque.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://campsci.com/museum/images/45o.jpg |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020719013944/http://campsci.com/museum/images/45o.jpg |url-status=dead |archive-date=2002-07-19 |title=image of the double gate passage |access-date=2018-04-05}}</ref> 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 aisle 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 al-Aqsa Mosque blocked the original surface exits.

In the process of investigating Cistern 10, Warren discovered tunnels that lay ''under'' the Triple Gate passageway.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://campsci.com/museum/images/47a.jpg |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020719033733/http://campsci.com/museum/images/47a.jpg |url-status=dead |archive-date=2002-07-19 |title=Photograph of one of the chambers ''under'' the Triple Gate passageway |access-date=2018-04-05}}</ref> 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 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.

Altogether, there are six major sealed gates and a postern, listed here counterclockwise, dating from either the Roman/Herodian, Byzantine, or Early Muslim periods:
* Bab al-Jana'iz/al-Buraq (Gate of the Funerals/of al-Buraq); eastern wall; a hardly noticeable [[postern]], or maybe an improvised gate, a short distance south of the Golden Gate
* Golden Gate (Bab al-Zahabi); eastern wall (northern third), a double gate:
::Bab al-Rahma (Door of Mercy) is the southern opening,
::Bab al-Tauba (Door of Repentance) is the northern opening
* Warren's Gate; western wall, now only visible from the Western Wall Tunnel
* Bab an-Nabi (Gate of the Prophet) or Barclay's Gate; western wall, visible from al-Buraq Mosque inside the Haram, and from the Western Wall plaza (women's section) and the adjacent building (the so-called house of Abu Sa'ud)
* Double Gate (Bab al-Thulathe; possibly one of the Huldah Gates); southern wall, underneath al-Aqsa Mosque
* Triple Gate; southern wall, outside Solomon's Stables/Marwani Mosque
* Single Gate; southern wall, outside Solomon's Stables/Marwani Mosque

:'''Open gates of the Haram'''
{{Main|Gates of the Temple Mount}}
There are now eleven open gates offering access to the Muslim Haram al-Sharif.
* Bab al-Asbat (Gate of the Tribes); north-east corner
* Bab al-Hitta/Huttah (Gate of Remission, Pardon, or Absolution); northern wall
* Bab al-Atim/'Atm/Attim (Gate of Darkness); northern wall
* Bab al-Ghawanima (Gate of Bani Ghanim); north-west corner
* Bab al-Majlis / an-Nazir/Nadhir (Council Gate / Inspector's Gate); western wall (northern third)
* Bab al-Hadid (Iron Gate); western wall (central part)
* Bab al-Qattanin (Gate of the Cotton Merchants); western wall (central part)
* Bab al-Matarah/Mathara (Ablution Gate); western wall (central part)
Two twin gates follow south of the Ablution Gate, the Tranquility Gate and the Gate of the Chain:
* Bab as-Salam / al-Sakina (Tranquility Gate / Gate of the Dwelling), the northern one of the two; western wall (central part)
* Bab as-Silsileh (Gate of the Chain), the southern one of the two; western wall (central part)
* Bab al-Magharbeh/Maghariba (Moroccans' Gate/Gate of the Moors); western wall (southern third); the only entrance for non-Muslims
A twelfth gate still open during Ottoman rule is now closed to the public:
* Bab as-Sarai (Gate of the Seraglio); a small gate to the former residence of the Pasha of Jerusalem; western wall, northern part (between the Bani Ghanim and Council gates).

=== Solomon's Stables/Marwani Mosque ===
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 [[Solomon's Stables]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://campsci.com/museum/images/46e.jpg |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020719023533/http://campsci.com/museum/images/46e.jpg |url-status=dead |archive-date=2002-07-19 |title=Photograph of King Solomon's Stables |access-date=2018-04-05}}</ref> They were used as stables by the Crusaders, but were built by Herod the Great – along with the platform they were built to support.

=== Northern and western porticos ===
The complex is bordered on the south and east by the outer walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. On the north and west it is bordered by two long porticos (''[[riwaq (arcade)|riwaq]]''), built during the Mamluk period.<ref>M.H. Burgoyne, D.S. Richards'', Mamluk Jerusalem: An Architectural Study'', pp. 104–07 (North Portico); and West Portico, pp. 192–94.</ref> A number of other structures were also built along these areas, mainly also from the Mamluk period. On the north side, they include the Isardiyya Madrasa, built before 1345, and the Almalikiyya Madrasa, dated to 1340.<ref name=":212">{{Cite book |last=Murphy-O'Connor |first=Jerome |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KKIUDAAAQBAJ |title=The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide from Earliest Times to 1700 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-19-923666-4 |pages=90–92 |language=en}}</ref> On the west side, they include the Ashrafiyya Madrasa, built by Sultan Qaytbay between 1480 and 1482,<ref name=":03">{{Cite book |last1=Blair |first1=Sheila S. |author-link1=Sheila Blair |title=The Art and Architecture of Islam: 1250–1800 |last2=Bloom |first2=Jonathan |author-link2=Jonathan Bloom |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1995 |location=New Haven, CN; London |pages=92–93}}</ref> and the adjacent [[Al-Uthmaniyya Madrasa (Jerusalem)|Uthmaniyya Madrasa]], dated to 1437.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Burgoyne |first=Michael Hamilton |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qR_qAAAAMAAJ |title=Mamluk Jerusalem: An Architectural Study |publisher=British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem by the World of Islam Festival Trust |year=1987 |isbn=978-0-905035-33-8 |pages=544–547 |language=en}}</ref> The Sabil of Qaytbay, contemporary with the Ashrafiyya Madrasa, also stands nearby.<ref name=":03" />

=== Minarets ===
{{Main|Minarets of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound}}
The existing four minarets include three along the western perimeter of the esplanade and one along the northern wall. The earliest dated minaret was constructed on the northwest corner of the Temple Mount in 1298, with three other minarets added over the course of the 14th century.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Grabar |first1=Oleg |author-link=Oleg Grabar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CW6U921i4fEC&q=ghawanima+minaret+sultan+lajin |title=Where Heaven and Earth Meet: Jerusalem's Sacred Esplanade |last2=Ḳedar |first2=Benjamin Z. |author-link2=Benjamin Z. Kedar |date=2009 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=978-0-292-72272-9 |location=United States |pages=191 |language=en-us}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Murphy-O'Connor |first=Jerome |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KKIUDAAAQBAJ&dq=ghawanima+minaret&pg=PA90 |title=The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide from Earliest Times to 1700 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-19-923666-4 |page=90 |language=en}}</ref>