Dome of the Rock

The Dome of the Rock is the oldest surviving major work of Islamic architecture, and its golden dome is the image most people carry of Jerusalem. The octagonal shrine stands at the centre of the Haram al-Sharif, or Temple Mount, in the Old City. It is not a mosque in the everyday sense but a monument built over a rock: the Foundation Stone, from which Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad began his Night Journey to heaven, and which Jewish tradition associates with the site of the Temple and with Abraham's near-sacrifice of his son.

The Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik had it built in 691–692, and its plan owes much to Byzantine churches and palaces. A dome about 20 metres across rests on a drum carried by four piers and twelve columns; around it an octagonal arcade forms two concentric walkways that allowed pilgrims to circle the rock. The inscriptions inside, among the earliest to proclaim Islam in monumental form, carry the date 72 AH; the name of the builder was later chiselled out and replaced with that of the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun, but the original date was left in place. The Crusaders turned the building into a church, and Saladin reconsecrated it in 1187.

The interior is richly decorated: some 1,200 square metres of mosaics with stylised trees, vases, jewels and vine scrolls in the manner of late antique art, much of it Umayyad in design, with columns and capitals reused from older buildings, painted and gilded ceilings from the Mamluk and Ottoman periods and a band of inscriptions recording restorations from Saladin to the 19th century. The exterior tells a later story. In the 16th century Suleiman the Magnificent replaced the outer mosaics with glazed tiles, crowned by verses from Surah Ya-Sin; these were replaced with Italian-made copies in 1960–1962. The dome's gleam is modern too: it was regilded in copper in the early 1960s and covered with gold-plated panels in the 1990s. The original dome collapsed in an earthquake in 1015 and was rebuilt within a few years.

The Dome is maintained by the Jordanian Ministry of Awqaf. Non-Muslims may visit the esplanade through the Mughrabi Gate during limited hours, and can walk around the building and see its tiled facades, but they have not been admitted to the interior since 2000; non-Muslim prayer on the site is prohibited. The compound is a focus of political and religious tension, and access can be restricted or closed at short notice.

Getting there

The Dome stands in the Old City of Jerusalem; the entrance for non-Muslim visitors is the Mughrabi Gate, reached by a wooden ramp from the Western Wall plaza. The nearest airport is Ben Gurion International (TLV), about 42 km away. Trains run from the airport to Jerusalem–Yitzhak Navon station, which connects with the Jerusalem Light Rail; the lanes of the Old City are best walked.