The Temple Mount, (הַר הַבַּיִת‎) is one of the most important religious sites in the Old City of Jerusalem for thousands of years. At least four religions are known to have used the Temple Mount: Judaism, Christianity, Roman religion, and Islam. the first temple was built by Solomon in 957 BCE and destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The second was constructed under the auspices of Zerubbabel in 516 BCE and destroyed by the Roman Empire in 70 CE

Judaism regards the Temple Mount as the place where God chose the Divine Presence to rest (Isa 8:18). According to the Bible the site should function as the center of all national life—a governmental, judicial and, of course, religious center. During the Second Temple Period it functioned also as an economical center. The location is the holiest site in Judaism and is the place Jews turn towards during prayer. Due to its extreme sanctity, many Jews will not walk on the Mount itself, to avoid unintentionally entering the area where the Holy of Holies stood.

Excavations at the Temple Mount

Due to the extreme political sensitivity of the site, no real archaeological excavations have even been conducted on the Temple Mount itself. Aside from visual observation of surface features, most other archaeological knowledge of the site comes from a 19th century survey. In the late 1960’s Israeli archeologists began a series of excavations near the site at the southern wall that uncovered finds from the Second Temple period through Roman, Umayyad and Crusader times. Over the period 1970–88, a number of tunnels were excavated in the vicinity, including one that passed to the west of the Mount and became known as the Western Wall Tunnel, which was opened to the public in 1996.

Entry to the site

Jewish connection and veneration to the site arguably stems from the fact that it contains the Holy of Holies of the Temple, the Most Holy Place in Judaism. Jewish tradition names it as the location for a number of important events which occurred in the Bible, including the Binding of Isaac, Jacob’s dream, and the prayer of Isaac and Rebekah. Similarly, when the Bible recounts that King David purchased a threshing floor owned by Araunah the Jebusite, tradition locates it as being on this mount.

During Temple times, entry to the Mount was limited by a complex set of purity laws. After the destruction of the Temple there was discussion as to whether the site still maintained its holiness or not. Jewish codifiers accepted the thought that the holiness of the Temple sanctified the site for eternity and consequently the restrictions on entry to the site are still currently in force.

In August 1967 the Chief Rabbis of Israel, Isser Yehuda Unterman and Yitzhak Nissim, together with other leading rabbis, asserted that “For generations we have warned against and refrained from entering any part of the Temple Mount.” Rabbinical consensus held that it is forbidden for Jews to enter any part of the Temple Mount, and in January 2005 a declaration was signed confirming the 1967 decision.