The Temple Mount today

Jewish tradition identifies the platform in Jerusalem's Old City as the site of both Temples, on Mount Moriah. Historians and archaeologists agree the Second Temple stood on this platform, which Herod greatly enlarged.

The Western Wall is part of the retaining wall of Herod's expanded platform, not a wall of the Sanctuary itself. For centuries it has been the closest accessible place of Jewish prayer to the site of the Holy of Holies.

Since the late seventh century the platform has held the Dome of the Rock and, later, the al-Aqsa mosque. Muslims know it as al-Haram al-Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary, and it is among the holiest places in Islam. Christians, too, hold Jerusalem and its Temple memory sacred.

Rambam rules that the holiness of the Temple site did not end with its destruction. Because each part of the Mount has a different degree of holiness, and the exact positions of the courts are not known with certainty, the question of where a person may stand is a legal one, not only a historical one.

Many rabbinic authorities, including Israel's Chief Rabbinate, have long held that Jews should not enter the Mount at all today, because the purification required is not available and the location of the most holy areas is uncertain.

Other authorities permit entry to areas they consider to lie outside the sacred courts, after immersion and with other precautions. The disagreement is real and ongoing. The site describes it and takes no side.

The Mount is administered by the Islamic Waqf under long-standing arrangements often called the status quo, and its status is politically sensitive. This site explains Jewish texts about a future Temple. It does not advocate any action at the present site, and it does not place its reconstruction on today's Mount.