Editing Temple in Jerusalem (section)

==Location==
[[File:The rock of the Dome of the Rock Corrected.jpg|upright=1.4|thumbnail|right|The Foundation Stone in the floor of the [[Dome of the Rock]] shrine in [[Jerusalem]]. The round hole at upper left penetrates to a small cave, known as the [[Well of Souls]], below. The cage-like structure just beyond the hole covers the stairway entrance to the cave (south is towards the top of the image).]]
[[File:Bottom of the Foundation Stone.jpg|upright=1.4|thumbnail|The bottom of the Foundation Stone, photo taken from the [[Well of Souls]]]]
There are three main theories as to where the Temple stood: where the Dome of the Rock is now located, to the north of the Dome of the Rock (Professor Asher Kaufman), or to the east of the Dome of the Rock (Professor Joseph Patrich of the [[Hebrew University]]).<ref>See article in the ''World Jewish Digest'', April 2007</ref>

The exact location of the Temple is a contentious issue, as questioning the exact placement of the Temple is often associated with [[Temple denial]]. Since the [[Holy of Holies]] lay at the center of the complex as a whole, the Temple's location is dependent on the location of the Holy of Holies. The location of the Holy of Holies was even a question less than 150 years after the Second Temple's destruction, as detailed in the [[Talmud]]. Chapter 54 of the [[Berakhot (tractate)|Tractate Berakhot]] states that the Holy of Holies was directly aligned with the [[Golden Gate (Jerusalem)|Golden Gate]], which, assuming the current gate follows the same course as the now buried Herodian gate, would have placed the Temple slightly to the north of the Dome of the Rock, as Kaufman postulated.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sefaria.org/Berakhot.54a.7?ven=William_Davidson_Edition_-_English&lang=bi |title=Berakhot 54a:7 |access-date=2020-02-27 |archive-date=2020-06-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200608104932/https://www.sefaria.org/Berakhot.54a.7?ven=William_Davidson_Edition_-_English&lang=bi |url-status=live}}</ref> However, chapter 54 of the [[Yoma|Tractate Yoma]] and chapter 26 of the [[Sanhedrin (tractate)|Tractate Sanhedrin]] assert that the Holy of Holies stood directly on the [[Foundation Stone]], which agrees with the traditional view that the Dome of the Rock stands on the Temple's location.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sefaria.org/Yoma.54b.2?ven=William_Davidson_Edition_-_English&lang=bi |title=Yoma 54b:2 |access-date=2020-02-27 |archive-date=2020-06-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200608104940/https://www.sefaria.org/Yoma.54b.2?ven=William_Davidson_Edition_-_English&lang=bi |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sefaria.org/Sanhedrin.26b.5?ven=William_Davidson_Edition_-_English&lang=bi |title=Sanhedrin 26b:5 |access-date=2020-02-27 |archive-date=2020-06-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200608104936/https://www.sefaria.org/Sanhedrin.26b.5?ven=William_Davidson_Edition_-_English&lang=bi |url-status=live}}</ref>