The huge substructions of the Temple plateau, the surface of which was much altered by Saladin, still date from the reign of Herod. The plateau itself forms an immense quadrangle of irregular shape (W. side 536, E. side 518, N. side 351, S. side 310 yds. long). In the N.W. corner, once perhaps the site of Baris, the castle of the Maccabees, and of the Roman castle of Antonia, rises the highest Minaret of the Haram. The buildings by the W. and N. walls, Koran schools, dwellings, etc., with open arcades on the groundfloor, are unimportant. The great quadrangle, now partly planted with trees, is studded with numerous mastabas, raised platforms with prayer-niches (mihrâbs), and sebîls, or fountains for the religious ablutions. Especially to the S.W. of the Dome the ground is honeycombed with deep Cisterns, some of which are very ancient.
Entering the precincts and passing the pretty Sebîl of Kâït Bey (p. [458]) we mount one of the flights of steps of the time of Abd el-Melik to the Platform, 10 ft. in height.
The so-called **Dome of the Rock (Kubbet es-Sakhra; Pl. H, 4, 5), usually but erroneously called Omar’s Mosque, was built, according to the Arabian historians, by Abd el-Melik for political reasons, the Omaiyades being at that period denied access to the Kaaba at Mecca. The year 72 of the Hegira (691–2) is mentioned as the date of its erection. The chief restorations in the middle ages were undertaken by the Fatimite Ez-Zâhir (1021–36), who rebuilt the dome in 1022, and by Saladin, to whom is due the superb stucco decoration of the dome. Most of the later additions were made by the Turkish sultan Suleiman the Great (1520–66). The W. porch alone is quite modern.
The building, in the late-Roman and Byzantine style (comp. p. [548]), is in the form of an octagon, 50 yds. in diameter, with sides 22½ yds. in length, and with two concentric aisles. Above the inner aisle rises the boldly designed *Dome (98 ft. high), consisting of two wooden vaults placed one inside the other and roofed with plates of copper. The external walls are still incrusted below with their old slabs of marble, while above the window-sills the ancient glass mosaics were replaced in the time of Suleiman by superb Persian porcelain-tiles (kishâni). The keel-arches of the windows are of the same period.
The two aisles are separated by two series of supports. Between the eight pillars of the outer octagonal aisle, which are incrusted with marble dating from the time of Suleiman, rise sixteen columns with late-Roman or early-Byzantine capitals, and the round-arched arcades are connected, above the Byzantine imposts, by tie-beams overlaid with copper. The inner row of supports, bearing the dome, consists of four large pillars and twelve antique monolith columns. The pointed arches of the vaulting here, dating from Suleiman’s restoration, rest immediately on the capitals. The wrought-iron screen is of French workmanship of the Crusaders’ era.
The glass *Mosaics in the spandrels of the outer aisle, executed by Byzantine artificers, all belong to the earliest building; those in the drum of the dome are partly of the time of Ez-Zâhir and of Saladin. The stucco decoration of the dome was restored under Mohammed en-Nâsir (p. [448]) in 1318, and again in 1830. The *Windows, dating from Suleiman’s restoration, present a marvellous wealth of colouring.
Enclosed by the inner aisle, and best viewed from the high bench beside the N.W. gate of the screen, is the Sacred Rock, measuring 18½ by 14½ yds., and rising 4–6½ ft. above the pavement of the church. Under it is a cavity, probably once a cistern. The rock is supposed to have been the site of the great Jewish altar of burnt-offering. The Jews and the Moslems believe it to have been also the scene of Abraham’s sacrifice. From this spot Mohammed is said to have been translated to heaven on his miraculous steed Burâk, while an angel restrained the rock in its attempt to follow him; here too, they believe, will be erected the throne of God on the Day of Judgment.
Outside the E. gate of the Dome of the Rock, and probably as old, is the so-called Dome of the Chain (Kubbet es-Silseleh, or Mehkemet Dâûd, ‘David’s Place of Judgment’). This structure consists of two concentric rows of columns, the outer forming a hexagon, the inner an endecagon. The large prayer-recess on the S. side, facing Mecca, is of the 13th century. The arcades, connected by tie-beams, and the drum of the dome are richly adorned with fayence tiles of Suleiman’s period. Across the dome, it is said, will be stretched a chain (silseleh) on the Day of Judgment, from which the awful scales will be suspended.
We now descend from the platform by the steps near the ‘Summer Pulpit’ (15th cent.), at the S.E. angle, and walk past the round basin of El-Kâs to the—
*Mesjid el-Aksâ (Pl. H, 5, 6), the sanctuary ‘farthest’ from Mecca and one of the holy places of Proto-Islam, to which God is said to have brought Mohammed from Mecca in one night (Sureh xvii. 1). The mosque without its additions is now 88 yds. long and 60 yds. wide. Of the church of Justinian nothing apparently has survived except the columns of the nave and two inner aisles. The capitals perhaps date from caliph Omar’s period (637). The broad transept was probably constructed by the Abbaside El-Mehdi (775–95); the wooden dome is now covered with lead outside. The transept gave the edifice the form of a ⟙, which was converted later into a rectangle by the two rows of aisles added on the E. and W. These, in their present shape, and the pointed arcades of the nave and inner aisles, connected by tie-beams, belong to a late period of restoration. The so-called White Mosque, now set apart for women, a long double corridor to the W. of the transept, probably once belonged to the castle of the Knights Templar. The latest addition is the porch built by Melik el-Muazzam Isâ (d. 1227) and restored at a later period. Its middle arcades imitate Frank Gothic.