On this platform stood Solomon's Temple and its successor; today the Dome of the Rock enshrines the Foundation Stone — in Jewish tradition the site of creation's first rock and Abraham's binding of Isaac, in Islamic tradition the place from which Muhammad ascended to heaven on the Night Journey. The Herodian retaining walls include the 'Western Stone', a 13.6-metre ashlar weighing several hundred tonnes. Beneath, the Well of Souls cave and sealed cisterns keep the Mount honeycombed with the unexcavated and the unknowable.
See Temple Mount / Haram al-Sharif on the globe
Opens with the Axis Mundi lens on, so you can see what it connects to.
Notable facts
- The Western Stone (~13.6 m long, several hundred tonnes — radar puts it at roughly 250–300 t) is among the largest building blocks of antiquity.
- The Dome of the Rock's octagonal geometry became a template for sacred architecture across three continents.
- Medieval maps drew Jerusalem as the literal centre — the omphalos — of the world.
Through the theories
How each theory reads Temple Mount / Haram al-Sharif. Follow a theory to see its verdict and every other site it claims.
Axis MundiEstablished anthropology
The Foundation Stone is the navel of the world in three faiths; medieval maps drew the city at the exact centre of the earth.
Sacred GeometryA spectrum
The Dome's double octagon derives from circle-squaring geometry; Temple proportions in Kings and Ezekiel fed a millennium of sacred-measure speculation, from Newton onward.
Ley LinesMostly chance
Terminal point claimed for the extended Michael–Apollo axis (via Mount Carmel).
