We began the next day by standing in line for an hour or so in order to be able to see the Temple Mount. This mount is actually the top of Mount Moriah and once again, there is a lot of biblical history that took place here.
This is the place where:
- God directed Abraham to take Isaac up to and sacrifice (Genesis 22)
- God stops the plague and David buys the threshing floor from Araunah the Jebusite (2 Samuel 24)
- Solomon builds the Temple to God (which was destroyed in 586 BC)
- Where the second Temple of Jesus' time was rebuilt and later enlarged by Herod the Great
Today, the Muslims are actually in control of this area in effort to keep peace...which explains the high security that we had to go through in order to see anything. Now the Temple is gone, and in its place is the famous Muslim shrine, the Dome of the Rock. This was built between 687-691 AD and is now used for the Muslim's individual prayers. There is another mosque (El Aksa) nearby where the Muslims go for group prayers. Since we are currently living in Jordan, something I found really interesting was that one of their old kings (King Abdullah) was assassinated at the El Aksa Mosque in 1951. This was the current King Abdullah's great-grandfather.
Here are some pictures on top of the Temple Mount...
The Dome of the Rock
1 comment:
Great pics and great history. I find your stories so interesting and can't wait to hopefully get there and experience it myself one day. Thanks for sharing!
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