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[[File:Mosque.jpg|right|thumb]]The '''Dome of the Rock''' is an [[Islamic]] shrine in Jerusalem. It is the oldest Islamic building of note and is adjacent to [[al-Aqsa Mosque]]. It is the high point of the [[Temple Mount]], biblical Mount Moriah.

The '''Dome of the Rock''' is an [[Islamic]] shrine rather than a [[mosque]]; it is considered the oldest extant Islamic building in the world and is adjacent to [[Al-Aqsa Mosque]], in [[Jerusalem]].

The Dome of the Rock houses the rock upon which [[Mohammed]] is said to have ascended to heaven, coincidentally the same rock upon which [[Abraham]] offered up his son [[Isaac]] to God to prove his faith and, in the Jewish tradition, the Foundation Stone, said to be the first part of the world that came into being at the creation. It is also on the site of the inner sanctum of the [[Second Temple]] of Jerusalem (the Holiest of Holies) on the platform known as the [[Temple Mount]], which Muslims refer to as the "Noble Sanctuary." The holiness of the site to the three Abrahamic faiths is intense, to say the least.

[[Mohammed]] is said to have ascended to heaven from the Temple Mount. In Jewish tradition recorded in the Mishna, the rock under the dome is called the foundation stone. The foundation stone is where [[Abraham]] offered up his son [[Isaac]] to God to prove his faith and it is the part of the world that came into being first during creation. The [[Second Temple]] was also on the Temple Mount, possibly near the site of the dome. Muslims refer to the Temple Mount as the "Noble Sanctuary."  

After the Second Temple was destroyed in the Roman years, leaving Jerusalem in [[Roman Empire|Roman]] and later [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] hands, the Temple Mount became an empty site, used alternately as empty space, or as a city dump.  According to legend, when the first Muslim conquerors took [[Jerusalem]], they approached the Temple Mount.  There, the conqueror Umar (or Omar) called the Christian [[Patriarch]] Sophronius of the city before him to answer for the derelict state of the holy site.  Insisting that such a site, sacred to all three religions, deserved respect, Umar insisted that the Patriarch himself begin cleaning the Mount.   

After the Second Temple was destroyed in the Roman years, leaving Jerusalem in [[Roman Empire|Roman]] and later [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] hands, the Temple Mount became an empty site, used alternately as empty space, or as a city dump.  According to legend, when the first Muslim conquerors took [[Jerusalem]], they approached the Temple Mount.  There, the conqueror Umar (or Omar) called the Christian [[Patriarch]] Sophronius of the city before him to answer for the derelict state of the holy site.  Insisting that such a site, sacred to all three religions, deserved respect, Umar insisted that the Patriarch himself begin cleaning the Mount.