The Temple Mount

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The Temple Mount is perhaps the holiest mountain in the world. The Temple Mount is holy for all three major monotheistic religions – Judaism, Islam and Christianity. According to Judaism, this is the Mount Moriah on which Abraham almost sacrificed his son. It was the site of Solomon’s Temple and the famous Second Temple which was destroyed by the Roman Empire in 70 AD. Muslims believe this to be the site where the prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven on the ‘Night Journey’ in the 7th century and the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosque which stand there to this day commemorate this event Islam. For Christians, during the times of the Jewish Second Temple Jesus entered Jerusalem and begun “cleansing the temple”.

 Due to its religious significance, The Temple Mount remains to this day a site of friction and tension between the different denominations and religions that live in the Holy Land.