Temple Mount הר הבית
Mount Moriah—site of the Akeda, of both Temples and of the Western Wall: Judaism's holiest place.
Tradition ties this hill to the earliest stories: the dust for Adam was taken here, Noach offered here, and Avraham brought Yitzchak to "the mountain of Moriah" on the third day. David buys the summit—Aravna's threshing floor—at full price so the title is undisputed, and Shlomo builds the Temple there.
Eight hundred and thirty years later, on 9 Av 3338, it is burned by the Babylonians. The Second Temple, dedicated in 3412, stands four hundred and twenty years, is rebuilt by Herod into a vast platform, and is destroyed by Rome in 3828—again on 9 Av.
Herod's retaining walls survive, and the western one became the chief place of prayer. Halakha restricts access to the mount itself on grounds of ritual purity.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Tanakh
- Bereishit 22:2 — “the land of Moriah” — the site of the Akedah
- Divrei HaYamim II 3:1 — the identification of Mount Moriah with the site of the Temple
- Melachim I 6 — the building of the Temple on the mount
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Mishnah Middot — the dimensions and the gates of the mount
- Yoma 54b — the even shetiyah — the foundation stone of the world
- Berachot 32b — the gates of tears were never closed
Basis: tradition.