Temple of Jerusalem

The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. The city has been one of the major destinations for pilgrims of all faiths since the Middle Ages. Holy places include the mosque of the Dome of the Rock, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the Western (or Wailing) Wall.

Centre of Jewish national worship in Jerusalem, in both ancient and modern times, sited on Mount Moriah (or Temple Mount), one of the hills of Mount Zion. The Wailing Wall is the surviving part of the western wall of the enclosure of Herod's Temple. Since the destruction of the Temple in AD 70, Jews have gone there to pray and to mourn their dispersion and the loss of their homeland.

Three temples have occupied the site: Solomon's Temple, built about 950 BC, which was destroyed by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC; Zerubbabel's Temple, built after the return of the Jews from Babylonian Captivity in 536 BC; and Herod's Temple, which was destroyed by the Romans.

The site of the Temple now lies within a Muslim sacred enclosure known as Haram al-Sharif, containing the al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, built over an ancient rock altar (a great outcrop of rock) that was part of Solomon's Temple. Under Jordanian rule Jews had no access to the site, but the Israelis regained this part of the city in the 1967 war.

The temple is sited where Abraham is reputed to have been willing to sacrifice Isaac. On the rock altar, one can still trace the channels that conducted the blood from sacrifices to an opening into a cave underneath.

Zerubbabel's Temple was completed in 515 or 516 BC, 70 years after the first temple was destroyed. It was probably without ornaments. Herod's Temple was begun 20–19 BC and was finished in AD 64, six years before it was finally destroyed.