Temple Mount

The Temple Mount (Hebrew: הַר הַבַּיִת‎, Har HaBáyit), also known as the Haram (Arabic: الحرم الشريف‎, al-Ḥaram al-Šarīf, "Noble Sanctuary", or الحرم القدسي الشريف, al-Ḥaram al-Qudsī al-Šarīf, "Noble Sanctuary of Jerusalem"), is one of the most important religious sites in the Old City of Jerusalem. It has been used as a religious site for thousands of years. At least four religious traditions are known to have made use of the Temple Mount: Judaism, Greco-Roman paganism, Christianity, and Islam. The present site is dominated by three monumental structures from the early Umayyad period: the al-Aqsa Mosque, the Dome of the Rock and the Dome of the Chain. Herodian walls and gates with additions dating back to the late Byzantine and early Islamic periods cut through the flanks of the Mount. Currently it can be accessed via eleven gates, ten reserved for Muslims and one for non-Muslims, with guard posts of Israeli police in the vicinity of each.

Jewish and Christian tradition identifies the Temple Mount with Mount Moriah (Hebrew: הַר הַמוריה‎, Har HaMōriyā), the supposed location of the binding of Isaac. The Temple Mount was also formerly identified with Mount Zion, but the Jebusite fortress there has been placed in the neighborhood of Wadi Hilweh on the Eastern Hill and the name is now separately associated with Jerusalem's western hill.