Editing Temple Mount (section)

=== 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.