the.com/dome of the rock
Jerusalem's golden punctuation mark, where three faiths argue over the same rock.
means A gold-domed Islamic shrine in Jerusalem's Old City, built atop the rock from which Muhammad is believed to have ascended to heaven, and which Jewish tradition holds as the site of Abraham's binding of Isaac.
from Built in the late 7th century under the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik, its name simply describes what it is — a dome (qubbat) sheltering the sacred rock (al-sakhra) on the Temple Mount. The structure was possibly meant to rival the grandeur of Christian churches like the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and to mark Islam's presence over a site already layered with Jewish and Christian meaning. Its octagonal shape and Byzantine-influenced mosaics reflect the craftsmen and architectural language of the region at the time, repurposed for a new faith's monument.
- built
- 691 CE, older than most European cathedrals
- the rock
- where Muhammad allegedly ascended, Abraham allegedly almost sacrificed Isaac
- not a mosque
- it is a shrine, Al-Aqsa next door is the mosque
- gold dome
- real gold leaf, redone in 1993 with Jordanian royal funds