Image Details

Breadth and depth. The Umayyads, the first Islamic dynasty in Jerusalem (661–750 C.E.), built a series of palatial structures along the south and southwestern walls of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. Excavations have exposed the Umayyad Caliph’s Palace (marked 1 in the photo), which was connected by a bridge (2) to the Temple Mount and the Al-Aqsa Mosque (3). Around the corner from the Caliph’s Palace, the remnants of Robinson’s Arch (4) can be seen on the southwestern portion of the Temple Mount wall; it was in the area below (5), near the arch, that excavators unearthed the Umayyad wall that yielded the strangely cut stones. Just beyond this area, to the north, is the Western Wall, the most sacred site in modern Judaism (6). The Dome of the Rock (7), an Umayyad mosque, was erected on top of the Temple Mount in 691 C.E.