Christians remember the Second Temple as the backdrop to the Passion of
Christ. Like the First Temple, the Second Temple lasted only a few hundred years.
In the fourth year of the Jewish Revolt (70 CE), Roman legions sacked Jerusalem
and razed the Second Temple. Hadrian built a temple to Jupiter over the site, but
the Byzantines destroyed it and used the platform as a municipal sewage facility.
After Caliph Omar conquered Jerusalem in 638 CE (just six years after Muham-
mad's death) he ascended the Mount and began the clean-up himself, personally
removing an armful of brown gook.
DOME OF THE ROCK AND AL-AQSA MOSQUE. The Umayyad caliphs built the
two Arab shrines that still dominate the Temple Mount: the silver-domed al-Aqsa
Mosque (built in 715 and rebuilt several times after earthquakes) and the magnifi-
cent Dome of the Rock (built in 691). A stunning display of mosaics and metallic
domes, the complex is the third-holiest Muslim site after the Ka'ba in Mecca and
the Mosque of the Prophet in Medina. According to Muslim tradition, this is the
point to which God took Muhammad on his mystical Night Journey (miraj) from
the Holy Mosque at Mecca to the outer Mosque (al-aqsa means "the farthest") and
then on to heaven. The Dome of the Rock surrounds what Muslims believe to have
been Abraham's makeshift altar where he almost sacrificed Ishmael, his son by
Sarah's maid Hagar (not Isaac, as Christians and Jews believe).
The dome, once of solid gold, was eventually melted down to pay the caliphs'
debts. The domes of the mosques and shrines were plated with lusterless lead
until the structures received aluminum caps during the restoration work done
from 1958 to 1964. The golden hue of the Dome of the Rock was previously
achieved with an aluminum-bronze alloy, but in 1993 the dome was re-coated with
new metal plates faced with a thin coating of 24-karat gold, leaving it more brilliant
than ever. Many of the tiles covering the walls of the Dome of the Rock were
affixed during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, who had the city walls built
in the 16th century. Ceramic tiles were added in the 1950s and 60s through the pri-
vate funds of the late Jordanian King Hussein.
ISLAMIC MUSEUM. Some of this museum's most interesting relics include elabo-
rately decorated Qur'ans and a collection of crescent-topped spires that once
crowned older domes. The museum is next to the al-Aqsa Mosque, to the right
when entering from the ramp entrance beside the Western Wall.
OTHER SIGHTS. Between the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock is al-Kas,
a fountain, where Muslims perform ablutions (washing hands and feet) before
prayer. Built in 709 CE, the fountain is connected to underground cisterns capable
of holding 10 million gallonsThe arches on the Temple Mount, according to Mus-
lim legend, will be used to hang scales to weigh people's good and bad deeds. Next
to the Dome of the Rock is the much smaller Dome of the Chain, the exact center of
al-Haram al-Sharif, where Muslims believe a chain once hung from heaven that
could be grasped only by the righteous.
JEWISH QUARTER
Known as "Ha-Rovah" by Israelis, the picturesque Jewish Quarter is in the south-
east quadrant of the Old City, the site of the posh Upper City during the Second
Temple era. The quarter extends from Ha-Shalshelet St. (Bab al-Silsilah) in the
north to the city's southern wall, and from Ararat St. in the west to the Western
Wall in the east. From Jaffa Gate, either head down David St. and turn right at the
first large intersection just before it becomes Bab al-Silsilah, or turn right (past the
Tower of David) onto Armenian Orthodox Patriarchate Rd. (in the direction of
traffic) and make the first left onto St. James Rd. The high arch over the Hurva