Col. C. W. Wilson R.E. &c. Col. C. Warren R.E.
By favour of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
The raised platform in the middle of the Haram enclosure has an area of about 5 acres, and is an irregular quadrangle. The Kubbet es-Sakhrah, or Dome of the Rock, on this platform, covers the sacred rock, which rises 5 feet above the floor of the building, the crest being at the level 2440 feet above the Mediterranean. The Dome of the Chain is immediately to the east of the Kubbet es-Sakhrah.
The Jami’a el-Aksa, or “distant mosque” (that is, distant from Mecca), is on the south, reaching to the outer wall. The whole enclosure of the Haram is called by Moslem writers Masjid el Aksa, “praying-place of the Aksa.”
Entering by the gate of the Cotton Bazaar we stand within the temple courts. Before us are the steps which lead up to the platform where shoes must be removed; for while the outer court, like the old court of the Gentiles, is a promenade, the paved marble platform is a sacred enclosure, not to be trodden except barefoot.
Over the outer arcade of the Dome of the Rock runs the great Cufic inscription, giving the date of the erection of the building in 688 A.D. “The Dome of the Rock” (says Conder) “belongs to that obscure period of Saracenic art when the Arabs had not as yet created an architectural style of their own, and when they were in the habit of employing Byzantine architects to build their mosques.”
From the bright sunlight we pass suddenly into the deep gloom of the interior, lit with the “dim religious light” of the glorious purple windows. The gorgeous colouring, the painted wood-work, the fine marble, the costly mosaics, the great dome, flourished all over with arabesques and inscriptions, and gilded to the very top—all this splendour gleams out here and there from the darkness.
And in honour of what is this beautiful chapel built? A low canopy of rich silk covers the dusty limestone ledge round which the “Dome of the Rock” has risen. According to Arab tradition this Rock of Paradise is the source of the rivers of Paradise and the Foundation-stone of the world. From this rock Mohammed ascended to heaven (here is the impression made by the hand of the angel Gabriel, who held the rock down to prevent it from following the prophet), and this Rock is the Place of Prayer of all the Prophets.
Even more mysterious than the Sacred Rock is the Sacred Well below it. Descending a flight of steps at the south-east corner of the rock we enter a cave, in the rocky floor of which is a circular slab of marble, which returns a hollow sound when struck, but which is never uplifted. The Arabs appear to regard it as the mouth of Hell, for they call it the Well of Souls, and have a dread of the consequences if any evil spirit should escape. It is a tradition that in the Temple the ark of the covenant used to stand over this cave, and that it was afterwards concealed in the cave, or below it, by Jeremiah, and still lies hidden beneath the sacred rock.
The ground of the Haram enclosure is honeycombed with tanks, into some of which the water finds its way by unknown channels. One of the tanks is called the Great Sea, and would hold 2,000,000 gallons of water; another would hold 1,400,000, and all the tanks together 10,000,000 of gallons at the least. This would be more than a year’s supply for the city in its best days, a valuable resource in times of siege.