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Richard Nowitz
When Christian Crusaders took control of Jerusalem in 1099, they learned that the Dome of the Rock occupied the site of the biblical Temple. For the Crusaders, the site immediately became Christendom’s holiest ground—surpassing even the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (whose twin domes are visible in this photo just to the right of the Dome of the Rock’s glowing cupola). Thus they renamed the Dome of the Rock the Templum Domini (Temple of the Lord) and converted it into a Christian shrine, which celebrates the site where heaven and earth meet.