Dome of the Rock

Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem, domed shrine that stands on the traditional site of the Temple of Solomon (destroyed ad 70), the spot where Abraham had offered the sacrifice of Isaac. For Muslims, the site is holy since it was here that Muhammad ascended to heaven to receive the commandments of God. A mosque was built close to the Rock by the Caliph Omar after the latter captured Jerusalem in 635.

The first mosque was probably of timber and plaster and was destroyed to make way for a far grander building, the Aqsa Mosque, begun c. 690. The great earthquake of 746 wrecked the mosque, which was subsequently reconstructed, with the Dome of Rock itself incorporated into a large religious complex. Remodelled by the Crusaders, the buildings (temporarily in the hands of the Knights Templar) were restored by Saladin after his capture of Jerusalem.

The Dome of the Rock, second only to the Kaaba at Mecca as a Muslim holy place, is essentially as it was when completed in the 690s by the Caliph Abd al-Malik (whose work there is commemorated by a contemporary inscription) though the roof has been renewed several times. Within the building, reckoned the earliest surviving monument of Islamic architecture and probably modelled on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Rock itself may be seen. Only in 1855 were non-Muslims permitted to enter the building.