The Temple Mount: the plain-language guide to Jerusalem's most contested holy site

The answer in brief

The Temple Mount is the raised platform in the Old City of Jerusalem where the Bible places both ancient Jewish temples, where Islam's third-holiest mosque stands today, and where the Gospels place some of the most important events in Jesus' life. Since 1967 it has run under a carefully balanced arrangement: Muslim administration, Jordanian custodianship and Israeli security. Roughly 14 hectares (about 35 acres) of plaza hold the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, while the Western Wall below the western side is Judaism's holiest prayer site. Everything else flows from these simple facts.

What is the Temple Mount?

The Temple Mount is a large, man-extended platform above the southeastern hill of Jerusalem's Old City. Jews call it Har HaBayit—the Mountain of the House, referring to the temple that stood there. Muslims call it al-Haram al-Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary, the third-holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina.

The Hebrew Bible says Solomon built the First Temple here (2 Chronicles 3:1, on Mount Moriah, the mountain traditionally linked to Genesis 22), and that after the return from exile a Second Temple stood on the same platform, later expanded on a grand scale by King Herod. Rome destroyed that temple in AD 70. No Jewish temple has stood there since. For Jews, the site remains the direction of prayer and the holiest place in Judaism, approached today through the Western Wall below it.

Where is the Temple Mount?

The compound sits in the southeastern corner of Jerusalem's Old City, inside the Ottoman-era city walls. From its west side, visitors step down to the Jewish Quarter and the Western Wall; across the Kidron Valley to the east, the Mount of Olives looks straight onto the golden dome. The platform covers roughly 14 hectares (about 35 acres)—large enough to hold hundreds of thousands of worshippers, which is why it has hosted so much of Jerusalem's history.

What is on the Temple Mount?

Two buildings dominate. The Dome of the Rock, completed in 691/692 AD under the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik, is the golden-domed shrine over the raised rock at the platform's centre—the spot tradition identifies with the temple's Holy of Holies. The Al-Aqsa Mosque, first established in the early eighth century and rebuilt several times since, stands at the compound's southern end and is the congregational mosque of the sanctuary.

Around them stand cypress trees, arcades, smaller domes, fountains and minarets. Along the western and southern edges the original Herodian retaining walls still rise; the largest exposed stretch of that wall—about 488 metres below and alongside the western edge—is the Western Wall, where Jewish prayer has been held continuously in the modern era. Nothing of the biblical temple survives above ground; archaeologists and rabbinic custom alike keep the summit's exact temple footprint unexcavated.

Who controls the Temple Mount?

Israel took control of East Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount, in the 1967 Six-Day War. In the days that followed, Israel chose to preserve the site's existing religious arrangement—the status quo—rather than administer it directly: the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf manages the compound day to day, and Jordan retains a recognised custodianship role rooted in the 1994 Israel–Jordan peace treaty and a 2013 agreement. Israeli police control access and security, and under the status quo non-Muslim prayer inside the compound is prohibited, even though Jews are legally permitted to visit.

Israel's sovereignty over East Jerusalem is disputed internationally: most UN member states consider East Jerusalem occupied territory, and the city's final status is one of the core unresolved issues of the conflict. In practice, the current arrangement holds most of the time—and each challenge to it, real or rumoured, has repeatedly ignited violence. Precision here is not pedantry; it is safety.

Why is the Temple Mount important to Christianity?

The Gospels place Jesus at the temple again and again. As an infant He is presented there, where Simeon calls Him "a light for revelation to the Gentiles" (Luke 2:22–39). As a twelve-year-old He stays behind among the teachers (Luke 2:41–52). He cleanses the temple courts (John 2:13–17), teaches in them through His final week, and foretells their destruction: "not one stone will be left on another" (Matthew 24:1–2)—a prophecy Rome fulfilled in AD 70. At His death the temple curtain tore in two (Mark 15:38), and after His resurrection His first followers still gathered at the temple itself (Acts 2:46; 3:1).

Christians therefore read the site three ways at once: as the place where God's presence dwelt with Israel, as the stage of Jesus' life and teaching, and—after AD 70—as the foreshadowing of a greater dwelling of God with His people. What Christians do not agree on is what remains of the temple promise; GOD News reports the range of views rather than picking one.

Key Bible passages

Open any reference to read the passage in your preferred Bible translation.

• Genesis 22:1–14

  The binding of Isaac on Mount Moriah—the biblical mountain long identified with the temple site.

• 2 Chronicles 3:1

  Solomon begins building the temple 'on Mount Moriah' in Jerusalem.

• 1 Kings 6:37–38; 8:1–11

  The First Temple is completed and dedicated; God's glory fills the house.

• 2 Kings 25:8–21

  Babylon destroys Jerusalem and the First Temple in 586 BC.

• Ezra 6:15

  The Second Temple is completed in 516 BC after the return from exile.

• Psalm 122:1–9

  A pilgrim song of going up to the house of the LORD in Jerusalem.

• Luke 2:22–39

  Mary and Joseph bring the infant Jesus to the temple, where Simeon and Anna recognise Him.

• John 2:13–17

  Jesus cleanses the temple courts, saying, 'Zeal for your house will consume me.'

• Matthew 24:1–2

  Jesus foretells that not one stone of the temple will be left on another.

• Mark 15:38

  At Jesus' death the temple curtain is torn in two, from top to bottom.

• Hebrews 9:1–14

  The earthly sanctuary described as a shadow of the heavenly reality.

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