The Temple Mount — a 144,000 square metre platform in the heart of Jerusalem — is the most religiously charged site on earth. For Jews it is the location of the First and Second Temples and the Foundation Stone from which the world was created. For Christians it is where Jesus taught, overturned the money changers' tables, and prophesied the Temple's destruction. For Muslims it is the site of the Prophet's Night Journey and the third holiest place in Islam. No other spot on earth carries this density of sacred meaning — or this density of conflict.
Beneath the golden dome of the Dome of the Rock lies a bare outcrop of bedrock approximately 18 metres by 13 metres — the Foundation Stone, called Even HaShetiya in Hebrew and Al-Sakhra in Arabic. Jewish tradition holds that this is the stone from which God created the world — the first solid matter to emerge from the primordial waters, the navel of the earth, the site of Abraham's near-sacrifice of Isaac, and the location of the Holy of Holies of both Temples.
Islamic tradition holds that this is the rock from which the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven on the Buraq during the Night Journey, visiting the seven heavens and receiving the commandment of prayer before returning to earth. The Dome of the Rock was built specifically to enshrine and honour this event.
The Temple Mount is not merely a sacred place. It is the place where human history and divine intention are understood, by three of the world's great religions, to intersect. No other location on earth carries this weight of meaning — or this weight of consequence.
— Karen Armstrong, Jerusalem: One City, Three FaithsThe Temple Mount has attracted esoteric interest for centuries, much of it focused on what might lie in the tunnels and chambers beneath the platform. The Knights Templar — based on the Mount for nearly a century — are traditionally credited with excavating beneath the Temple. What they found, if anything, has generated centuries of speculation: the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail, ancient Jewish scrolls, and various other lost treasures have all been proposed.
Archaeological excavation of the Mount itself is politically impossible under current arrangements. What is known from the Copper Scroll found at Qumran — a list of hidden treasures that may relate to Temple treasure concealed before the Roman destruction — and from ancient descriptions of the Temple's underground architecture suggests a complex of chambers and tunnels that has never been fully explored.
Kabbalistic tradition locates the spiritual centre of the world at Jerusalem — specifically at the Foundation Stone, through which the divine influx flows into creation. The Temple was understood not merely as a house of worship but as a device for maintaining the connection between the divine and human worlds. Its destruction was not merely a political and religious catastrophe but a cosmic one — and its reconstruction, in Jewish and certain Christian eschatological traditions, will inaugurate a new age.
The current situation: The Temple Mount is administered by the Islamic Waqf under Jordanian custodianship, with Israeli security control of access. Jews may visit but may not pray on the Mount — prayers must be conducted at the Western Wall below. This arrangement, established after the 1967 war, remains one of the most delicate political and religious balancing acts in the world. Any change to the status quo is understood by all parties as potentially catastrophic.