Staircase and Arcade

View looking east at the Dome of the Rock.  In the foreground is the broadest of the eight staircases that lead up to the surface of the current platform.  At the top of it is a graceful four-arched Arcade.  Muslim lore suggests that scales to weigh the souls of men will be hung from these arcades at the end of time.

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The Dome of the Rock was completed about A.D. 691 by the Moslem Umayyad Dynasty which was headquartered in Damascus.  They Dome structure was intended to portray the glories of Islam and to divert pilgrim traffic to Jerusalem - from Mecca and Medina.

Many believe that the Holy of Holies of both Solomon's and later Herod's Temple was located on top of the raised bedrock—which is now covered by the Dome.