Dome of the Rock

The Dome of the Rock (Arabic: قبة الصخرة, romanized: Qubbat aṣ-Ṣaḫra) is an octagonal Islamic shrine at the center of the Al-Aqsa mosque compound on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. It is the world's oldest surviving work of Islamic architecture, the earliest archaeologically-attested religious structure to be built by a Muslim ruler and contains the earliest inscriptions proclaiming Islam and the prophet Muhammad. Its initial construction was undertaken by the Umayyad Caliphate on the orders of Abd al-Malik during the Second Fitna in 691–692 CE, and it has been built on top of the Foundation Stone (or Noble Rock).

The site's significance for Muslims derives from the belief that the Night Journey of Muhammad began from the rock at the centre of the structure. It is believed in Christianity and Judaism to be the site where Abraham attempted to sacrifice his son, and it is believed to be built on the site of the Second Jewish Temple (built in c. 516 BCE to replace the destroyed Solomon's Temple and expanded by Herod the Great), which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE, the temple over bears great significance in Judaism as the place where God created the world as well...