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The Byzantine Presence on the Temple Mount

by Marilyn Sams
October, 2014

The Byzantine Presence on the Temple Mount

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In an article in the Jerusalem Post, Lefkovits (2008, Nov. 17) reports on the Byzantine
mosaic found under a pier of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in excavations carried out there by R. W.
Hamilton, then Director of the British Mandate Antiquities Department. In the wake of recent
earthquakes which had damaged the mosque, Hamilton seized the opportunity to explore its
underground, with the permission of the Waqf. At some point between 1938 and 1942, he found
a mosaic under the Umayyad level, and under it, a mikveh of the Second Temple period. His
report of the excavation, entitled The Structural History of the Aqsa Mosque, failed to mention
these important finds, and they were unknown until 2008, when Zachi Zweig, while researching
at the Jerusalem Antiquities Authority, found them in a file related to the excavations. At a
conference sponsored by Bar Ilan University, Dr. Rina Talgam from the Hebrew University dated
the mosaic to the Byzantine era and it was assumed to be the remains of a church or monastery.
Zweig commented that "The existence of a public building from the Byzantine period on the
Temple Mount is very surprising in light of the fact that we do not have records of such
constructions in historical texts (as cited in Lefkovits, 2008). As the co-creator of the Temple
Mount Sift Project, Zweig knew first-hand all of the finds which had witnessed to himself and
Gabriel Barkay the existence of a Byzantine presence on the temple mount, despite scholarly
agreement on its lengthy abandonment (Hammer, 2011). Barkay has stated that The people
writing the history of the Temple Mount definitely have to reassess their work on this particular
era (Shragai, 2012, June 29). The purpose of this article is to reassess the history of this era to
demonstrate there are records of such constructions in historical texts, which have been passed
over, because scholars have been subject to what F. E. Peters described as envisioning
backward (Peters, 1985, p. 14). This anti-historical practice involves the creation of narrative
paradigms derived from an untested tradition and the subsequent interpretation of all related data

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according to those paradigms, sometimes resulting in an erroneous perspective. To recognize the
Byzantine presence on the temple mount, scholars must disengage from envisioning backward
with respect to the temple mount tradition and recognize the Byzantines identified the 36-acre
walled edifice of their time quite differently from todays perception. Ancient accounts reveal
they called it the Praetorium or the Hall of Pilate. There are descriptions of at least two churches
having been built there--the Church of Our Blessed Lady (or the Blessed Mary) and the Church
of Saint Sophia (or the Church of Holy Wisdom), both of which were on the pilgrimage tour
circuit. This article will consider the details of these accounts to show the Byzantine
differentiation between the site of the temple ruins and the site of the Praetorium, today known as
the temple mount.
The Byzantine tradition of identifying the temple mount as the Praetorium or Hall of
Pilate presumably begins with the reference in John 19:13, which notes that Pilate judged Jesus
in a place called lithostroton in Greek and gabbatha in Hebrew. Murphy-OConnor (1996) notes
there were two praetoria at the time of Jesus and selects Herods palace as the most likely place
for Jesuss judgment, rather than the Antonia Fortress (the Roman camp), the location of the
other praetorium. He notes that lithostroton means a paved area, while the underlying Aramaic
root of gabbatha means to be high, to protrude. Hence, he believes the reference to height is to
Herods palace, because it occupied the highest position on the western hill. While the palace of
Herod does seem the more logical of the two choices for several reasons, the Byzantine pilgrims
apparently felt otherwise, as the descriptions will make apparent.
Chronologically, the account which first mentions the Praetorium or the Hall of Pilate is
that of the Bordeaux Pilgrim (333 A.D.):

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From there, [inside the wall of Sion] so that you may go out of the wall of Sion,
as you go towards the gate of Neapolis, to the right side, below in the valley, are
some walls, where was the house, or praetorium, of Pontius Pilate. Here the Lord
was tried before his suffering.
The most notable walls in the valley from this perspective would have been those of the temple
mount. He does not mention any church in association with it and doesnt seem to have visited
it; however, he did visit the temple ruins before he reached the western hill:
There is there a crypt, in which Solomon used to torture demons. There is there
the corner of a most high tower, where the Lord ascended, and he spoke to him
who was tempting him, and the Lord stated to him: Thou shalt not tempt the Lord
thy God, but him only shalt thou serve. And a great corner stone is there, of
which it is said: The stone which the builders rejected, this is become the head of
the corner. And under the pinnacle of the tower itself are many chambers where
Solomon had the palace. There is even the chamber in which he sat and wrote
the book of Wisdom. This chamber is actually covered with a single stone.
And there are large cisterns for subterranean water and pools constructed with
great labor.
And on the temple mount itself, where the temple was which Solomon
built, the blood of Zacharias on the marble pavement before the altar is poured
there, you would say, even today. There are also visible the marks of the shoe
nails of the soldiers who slew him, throughout the whole area, so that you would
think they were made in wax. There are here two statues of Hadrian, and not far
from the statues there is a bored-through stone, to which the Jews come every

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year and anoint it, and lament themselves with moans and tear their clothes, and
thus depart. There is there the house of Hezekiah, King of Judah.
After visiting these ruins, his next stop is Mount Sion (the one so-called to the south of the
western hill):
Also, going out of Jerusalem, so that you may go up Mount Sion, on the left side,
and below in the valley, next to the wall, is a pool which is called Siloe. It has
four porticoes, and there is another large pool outside it. This spring runs for six
days and nights, but on the seventh day it is the Sabbath, and it does not run at all,
either by day or by night.
The Bordeaux Pilgrims point of departure from the temple ruins to reach his next goal of Mount
Zion appears to be on the southeastern hill. This is ascertained from his viewpoint crossing over
the lower Tyropoeon Valley, where, to his left (south), he notices the Pool of Siloam next to a
wall. He then describes a spring, ostensibly feeding the pool of Siloe, which would be the Gihon
Spring, located at the center of the southeastern hill.
The features of the temple ruins include a crypt; chambers under a tower/pinnacle,
including one covered by a single stone; a corner stone; and large cisterns for subterranean water
and pools. These features are associated with, but described separately from the temple mount,
and seem to be under the temple mount, which includes the features of a marble pavement in
front of an altar; marks of the Roman soldiers shoe nails throughout the whole area; two statues
of Hadrian, a bored-through stone which the Jews come to anoint and where they moan and
lament; and the house of Hezekiah.
Scholars have traditionally attributed these features to todays traditional temple mount
and several corresponding descriptions apply, including the crypt, underground chambers, a

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tower, the corner stone, large cisterns and pools, and a bored-through stone. However, to avoid
envisioning backward, other sources need to be compared, disclosing the Byzantines did not
associate these features with the 36-acre walled edifice of their time. One of these sources
comes from Eucherius (5th Century C.E.), the Bishop of Lyons, in his Letter to Faustus:
The Temple, which was situated in the lower city near the eastern wall, was once
a worlds wonder, but of its ruins there stands today only the pinnacle of one wall,
and the rest are destroyed down to their foundations.
A few water cisterns can be seen on the northern side of the city near the Temple. The
Pool of Bethsaida is there, distinguished by its twin pools. One is usually

filled

with winter rains, while the other is filled with red-colored water. On the

steep

rocky side of Mount Sion which faces east, below the city walls and at the

bottom of the

hill, gushes forth the fountain of Siloam. It does not flow

continuously, but only

on certain days and at certain hours, and it flows with an

intermittent stream

toward the south.

Beside the east wall

of Jerusalem, which is also the wall of the Temple, is

Jehoshaphat. It runs from north to south, and a torrent
whenever there has been rain to provide it with water. (as cited

Gehenna, the Valley of

runs through it
in Peters,

1985, p. 154)
Interpreting the account of Eucherius initially presents problems with respect to his mention of
the Pool of Bethsaida, whose traditional location is now near St. Annes, north of todays
traditional temple mount. However, if we confine all of his descriptions to the lower city near
the eastern wall, the Bethsaida Pool migrates to (1) the northern area of the southeastern hill,
near the eastern wall built by Eudocia, around 450 C.E., or (2) interpreting there to mean the

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southeastern hill rather than the northern side of the city, the Bethsaida Pool could be the two
pools of Siloam, the lower one of which must have had reddish waters, because the Muslims
later called it Birkat al-Hamra (meaning red). In addition, the temple site of Eucherius is at
Mount Zion (the actual one on the southeastern hill), below which the fountain of Siloam, with
its karstic descriptors, ties the temple ruins site to the center of the southeastern hill. Two other
features match those of the Bordeaux Pilgrim--a pinnacle and a few cisterns. The Valley of
Gehenna is mentioned and erroneously refers to the Kidron Valley.
Although the Bordeaux Pilgrim did not mention visiting the Praetorium, in about 350
C.E., Cyril of Jerusalem, in his famous catechetical lectures, speaks of the hall of Pilate, now
laid waste by the power of Him who was then crucified (13:39). Cyrils comment probably
refers to a structure or structures on the temple mount, possibly indicating, along with the
Bordeaux Pilgrims account, that the site was not yet on the pilgrimage route or that some ruins
had been maintained as a witness of Christs triumph over the cruelty inflicted on him. Etheria
(Egeria), who visited Jerusalem in 380 C.E. and participated in the Veneration of the Cross
ambulatories, omits any mention of the Praetorium when the passages from John 18:28-19:16 are
read by the Lector. However, the Old Armenian Lectionary notes that some time later, these
verses were read at the palace of the Judge, which appears to re-characterize the former ruins
mentioned by Cyril and may refer to a new edifice or edifices constructed on the temple mount.
According to the dates of the Lectionarys usage (419-439 C.E.), the Praetorium was part of the
worship circuit (The Pilgrimage of Etheria, 1919; Conybeare, 1905).
In 404 C.E., a
mention of the Praetorium appears in Jeromes Letter 108, which refers to the pilgrim Paulas trip

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to Jerusalem. The letter says the Proconsul of Palestine sent his chamberlain on ahead to make
the Pretorium ready for her (as cited in Peters, 1985, p. 152),
indicating the temple mount then served as the Proconsuls official residence, as well as a site of
Christian veneration.
Empress Eudocia (c. 400- 460 C.E.) retired to Jerusalem shortly after 440 C.E., where she
remained until her death. Among several churches attributed to her bounty is the Church of St.
Sophia, first described by Theodosius (530 C.E.):
From the house of Caiphas to the Pretorium of Pilate it is about 100 paces; the
Church of St. Sophia [or the Holy Wisdom] is there. Beside it St. Jeremiah
was cast into the pit [Jer.38:6]..The Pool of Siloam is a hundred paces from
the pit where they cast the Prophet Jeremiah; the pool is inside the wall.
(Theodosius, Topography of the Holy Land, 40-45, as cited in Peters, 1985,
p.57; information in brackets is Peters).
Theodosius describes the Church of St. Sophia at the Praetorium, Jeremiahs pit next to it, and
the Pool of Siloam at one hundred paces distance. Subsequent descriptions will repeat these
referents with more details. The most important of these is the account of Antoninus Martyr
(a.k.a. the Piacenza Pilgrim), a traveler who visited the holy places in about 560-570 C.E.,
remarking the existence of a second church on the temple mount, named the Basilica of the
Blessed Mary:
At the foot of the mountain itself [Mount Hermon], there ascends a cloud from
the river at the first hour after sunrise, and comes to Jerusalem over the basilica
which is in Sion, and over the basilica of the Sepulchre of our Lord, and over the

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basilica of the Blessed Mary and St. Sophia, which was the Praetorium where our
Lord was tried. (Wilson, 1896, pp. 8-9)

The account of Antoninus conflates both churches with the Praetorium, probably because they
were both enclosed within the walled temple mount area and seemed to him one entity. His
statement is discussed by Charles Wilson in an 1896 introduction to the account:
The notices of the holy places are interesting, especially those ofthe churches
of the blessed Mary and St. Sophia, within the present Haram area. In ch. xxiii,
these churches are alluded to as separate buildings, but in ch. ix they are
mentioned as one super basilicum sanctae Mariae et sanctae Sophiae, quae
fuit praetorium There are several interesting coincidences between the
legends attaching to the rock of the Praetorium and those of the Sakhrah in
the Dome of the Rock, to which I have drawn attention in a note to p. 19; and
the subject is discussed more fully by Professor Sepp, in Die Felsenkuppel
eine Justinianische Sophien kirche. It may be remarked that the only notice of
the Temple is the allusion (ch xxiii) to the water running down from the ruins to
Siloam. (Wilson, 1896, p. vii).
Wilsons introduction brings up a key point for identifying the temple mount as the Byzantine
Praetorium, by mentioning the rock of the Praetorium and its association in legends with the
Sakrah (the rock under the Dome of the Rock). Further, Wilson remarks on the less important,
less detailed allusion to the Temple, which Antoninus identifies only with water running down
from the ruins to Siloam, a description noted below in its original context:
From Sion, we came to the Basilica of the Blessed Mary, where is a large

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congregation of monks, and where are also hospices (for strangers, both) for
men and women. There I was received as a pilgrim; there were countless
tables and more than three thousand beds for sick persons. We prayed in the
Praetorium where the Lord was tried, which is now the Basilica of St. Sophia.
In front of the ruins of the Temple of Solomon, under the street, water runs
down to the fountain of Siloam. Near the porch of Solomon, in the church itself,
is the seat upon which Pilate sat when he tried our Lord. There also is a square
stone, which used to stand in the midst of the Praetorium, upon which the
accused was placed during his trial, that he might be heard and seen by all the
people. Upon it our Lord was placed when He was tried by Pilate, and there the
marks of His feet still remain. (Wilson, 1896, pp. 19-20)
Antoninus identifies the Basilica of the Blessed Mary as a structure accommodating a very large
congregation of monks, offering hospice quarters for men and women, and providing a hospital
with 3,000 beds for sick persons. This church contrasts with the Basilica of St. Sophia, where
stands a square stone with Pilates seat upon it, formerly occupying the middle of the Praetorium,
and which serves mostly as a place of prayer, compared to the utilitarian aspects of the Basilica
of the Blessed Mary. The square stone is purported to be the place of the Lords trial, still
bearing the imprints of his feet. This designation implies the Byzantine pilgrims associated
gabbatha with the height of the Sakrah, rather than that of Herods palace. After the Muslims
had commandeered the temple mount, Jesuss footprints on the rock of the Praetorium
transmuted into the footprints of Mohammad. Antoninus considers the entire temple mount to be
the Praetorium and the location of St. Sophia in the middle of the Praetorium closely
approximates the site of the Dome of the Rock. The Porch of Solomon figures as a frequent

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feature associated with the Praetorium and the Church of St. Sophia, but its exact identity
remains elusive.
The note on p. 19 mentioned by Wilson provides a continuing commentary on the
Antoninus account:
This description of the church of St. Sophia, on the site of the Praetorium, in close
connection with the Mary Church of Justinian and the Temple, is curious and
interesting; especially on account of the resemblance of some of the traditions to
those attached to the Dome of the Rock. Thus, the Sakhrah represents the square
stone of the Praetorium; the footprints of Mahomet take the place of those of
Christ, and the many virtues of the stone are still believed in by the Moslem
pilgrims who purchase the dust of the Sakhrah, as a specific against all diseases.
The Porch of Solomon seems to have become the Tomb of Solomon, near the
northern door; and the Stone of Paradise, connected with the coming of
Mohomet to judge the faithful; the Mahkamat en Neby Daud, Tribunal of
the Prophet David (Dome of the Chain); and the name Mawazin, given to the
screen on the platform, may represent some old tradition that the Praetorium
occupied the ground now covered by the Dome of the Rock. Sepp, indeed
identifies the Church of St. Sophia with the last-named building(ch. vii.) also
mentions that the Church of St.Sophia occupied the site of the Praetorium. The
footprint of Jesus is now shown in the Al Aksa Mosque on a stone which is
supposed by some writers to have been taken from the Praetorium. (Wilson,
1896, p. 20; italics mine)
Wilson erroneously identifies the Basilica of the Blessed Mary with the Nea Church of Justinian,

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or new church built in honor of the Virgin. Its remains in the Jewish quarter continued
undiscovered until after the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967. However, his comments affirm
the traditions associating the Sakrah with the Church of St. Sophia and chronicle some of the
mutations of identification which followed the Muslim occupation of the temple mount.
Antoninus provides no other mention of the temple ruins, other than in front of them,
under the street, there are waters that run down to the fountain Siloam. This description is given
more clarity, however, when he leaves the Praetorium and refers to this area of the southeastern
hill again:
Thence we came to an arch, where was the ancient gate of the city. At that place
is the putrid water into which the prophet Jeremias was sent. Descending from
that arch down to the fountain of Siloam by many steps, we saw the round church,
from beneath which Siloe rises. This church has two baths made by the hands of
man, out of marble; between the two baths runs a partition; in the one men, and in
the other women, bathe for a blessing. In these waters many cures are effected,
and even lepers are cleansed. Before the atrium of the church is a large pool
formed by the hands of man, in which the people bathe continually; for at certain
hours the fountain of its own accord pours forth much water, which runs down
through the Valley of Gethsemane, which is also called Josaphat, as far as Jordan,
and enters the Jordan at the place where it runs into the Salt Sea below Sodom
and Gomorrha.The Fountain of Siloa is at the present day within the walls of
the city; because the Empress Eudocia herself added these walls to the city, and
herself built the basilica and tomb of Saint Stephen.
Hence, Antoninus equates the waters at the Church of Siloam, built by Eudocia, with curative

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effects, just like the Pool of Bethsaida. The associated karstic action of the Gihon Spring is
described. The ancient gate of the city may have been the Dung Gate and the many steps down to
the Church at Siloam, the stepped Tyropoeon street under which the waters near the temple ruins
ran down past the fountain of Siloam. These steps and the drainage channel underneath them
have been excavated by Reich and Shukron, and a large cistern at the southwestern corner of the
temple mount, which has also been uncovered in association with the drainage channel, may be a
possible candidate for Jeremiahs pit (Reich, 2011, Massive First Temple-Period Reservoir,
2012) .
An additional source which describes the Church of Saint Sophia with reference to the
Praetorium is the Breviarius of Jerusalem, an anonymous tour guide created in the late fifth or
early sixth centuries, which states the following:
5. From there, you go to the House of Pilate, where he handed the Lord
over to the Jews for scourging. There is a basilica there, and small chamber,
where they stripped him bare and scourged him. It is called [the Church of] Holy
Wisdom.
6. From there, you go to the temple built by Solomon, of which nothing remains
but a crypt. From there you go to that pinnacle, upon which Satan placed the
Lord. As you descend to Siloam, there is the pit where they placed blessed
Jeremiah. (Whalen, 2011, p. 41)
The pilgrim who penned The Breviarius cites the same features as the previously quoted
pilgrims, and the translation substitutes the House of Pilate for the Praetorium and The Church of
Holy Wisdom for the Church of St. Sophia. He also mentions a small chamber, not previously
alluded to by earlier pilgrims, which may refer to the later-named Well of Souls, under the

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Sakrah. His description of the temple ruins is similar to that of the Bordeaux Pilgrim in that it
divides the ruins of the temple into two areas, one where a crypt is located (probably one of the
caves in the Warrens Shaft area) and the other where a pinnacle is located (on the ridge). The
descent to Siloam is again associated with the temple ruins, but Jeremiahs pit seems located
further south, in between the ruins and the pools of Siloam.
Accounts subsequent to the Muslim conquest also illuminate the former presence of the
two churches on the temple mount. A description of the Omar al-Khattab tradition explains that
he built a sanctuary at the southern end of the temple mount, soon after conquering Jerusalem in
638 C.E. This location is attested to by an account in the Muthir al-Ghiram, compiled seven
hundred years after the event, in the 14th century:
It is related as coming from Shadad ibn Aws, who accompanied Umar when he
entered the Noble Sanctuary of the Holy City on the day when God caused it to
be reduced by capitulation, that Umar entered by the Gate of Muhammad,
crawling on his hands and his knees, he and all those who were with him, until
he came up to the court of the Sanctuary. Then looking around to the right and
the left and glorifying God, he said: By God, in whose hand is my soul, this
must be the sanctuary of David of which the Apostle spoke to us when he said
I was conducted there in the Night Journey. Then Umar advancing to the front
(or southern) part of the Haram area and to the western part thereof, said: Let
us make this the place for the sanctuary [masjid]. (as cited in Peters, 1985, p.
188).
The later Byzantine pilgrims referred to the masjid of Omar as a house of prayer for the

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Saracens. The earliest pilgrimage account alluding to this forerunner of the Al-Aqsa mosque is
mentioned by Arculf, in 680 C.E.:
In that famous place where the Temple once stood, near the (city) wall, on the
east, the Saracens now frequent an oblong house of prayer, which they pieced
together with upright planks and large beams over some ruined remains. It is said
that building can hold three thousand people. (Arculf I, 1, as cited in Peters, 1985,
p. 196; italics mine)
This telling account refers to ruins on the southern end of the temple mount upon which the
Saracens erected a house of prayer. We can logically identify these ruins as those of the Basilica
of the Blessed Mary mentioned by Antoninus as occupying the Praetorium. Notably, the
Saracens house of prayer admits 3,000 people, the same number of hospital beds in the Basilica
of the Blessed Mary.
An additional account, echoing that of Arculf, comes from the Christian Venerable Bede
(672-735 C.E..), one of the early chroniclers after the Muslim conquest, who wrote a description
with the usual topographical markers, except for one:
The site of the city Jerusalem, circling around in almost a circle, stands out
by the not small extent of its walls, by which also it holds itself below the
formerly neighboring Mount Sion, which, located to the south, rises above the
city like before an arc.
And in the lower part of the city, where the Temple, located in the vicinity
of the wall from the east, had been connected to the city itself by an access
bridge crossing over the middle, now the Saracens frequent there for prayer
a squared house, crudely constructed with raised planks and great beams over

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certain remains of ruins, which is thought to hold three thousand men. Few
cisterns are found there that use water.
In the vicinity of the Temple is the Bethsaida pool, it appears distinguished
by a double pool, the one of which is mostly filled by the winter rains, the other
is discolored with reddish waters. Away from there, by the front of mount Sion,
which faces the eastern region with steep rock, and inside the walls, in the roots
of the hill, the Siloam spring bursts forth, which in fact flows in the south intermittently with gusts of waters, that is, not with flowing waters, but in certain
hours of the day it erupts, and through vaults and caves in ground of the hardest
rock, it usually comes with a great sound. (trans. Arnold vander Nat, 2001)
The Venerable Bede also provides contrasting descriptions for the temple mount (where the
Saracens frequent a prayer house) and the Temple ruins, which are distinguished by the features
of being in the lower part of the city, located near the citys east wall, near a double pool (one of
which has reddish waters) and near the front of mount Zion, where the Siloam spring bursts
forth. His description of a former access bridge crossing over the middle which connected the
city and temple shows part of his description comes from Josephus and is particularly notable,
because it is located in the lower part of the city, referring to the southeastern hill. The
Venerable Bede duplicates the account of Arculf in mentioning the Saracens built a house of
prayer on ruins.
Another, much later account identifies the ruins spoken of by Arculf and the Venerable
Bede as those of the Church of our Blessed Lady, first named by Antoninus. In 1496 C.E.,
Arnold von Harff, a Christian visitor to Jerusalem, used bribes and a disguise to attain a
dangerous entrance to the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque:

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This Temple of Solomon is a fine round and lofty church roofed with lead.
Formerly the Jews held this tabernacle or chapel in great honor and reverence
and regarded it as a holy place, for on it stood the Ark of God.Beneath this
tabernacle is a small piece of rock enclosed with an iron railing, called the Holy
Rock, on which many wonders and miracles of God have been performed
We went from this Temple eastwards, some twenty-six paces into a very fine
mosque or church called the Porch of Solomon [the Aqsa Mosque]. When the
Christians possessed Jerusalem it was called the Church of Our Blessed Lady,
where for a long time she went to school. This church, the Porch of Solomon, is
much longer than the Temple of Solomon.Since the heathen have this church
in great reverence, no Christian or Jew may approach it. (as cited in Peters,
1985, pp. 406-407; information in brackets is Peters; italics mine)
Hence, the pilgrim accounts point to the Byzantine mosaic found by R. W. Hamilton as
belonging to the Church of Our Blessed Lady or the Church of the Blessed Mary, a Byzantine
church which occupied the Praetorium at the site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Concerning the fate of
the Church of St. Sophia, two descriptions provide the details of its demise. The first is an
explanatory citation which comes from another Omar tradition contained in the Muthir alGhiram, where Umar asks Kab:
you think we should put the place of prayer for Muslims in this
Sanctuary? Kab answered: In the further (northern) part of it, near
the Gate of the Tribes. But Umar said: No, since the fore part of the
sanctuary belongs to us. (Le Strange, 1890, pp. 139-143, as cited in

Where do
Holy

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Peters, 1985, p. 189).
This tradition hints that Omar distrusted Kab (a Jewish convert to Islam) and rejected the
northern part of the temple mount as a location for his house of prayer, because it belonged to
someone else. This circumstance would be consistent with the Church of St. Sophia still
occupying the site of the Dome of the Rock at the beginning of the Umayyad conquest.
However, when Caliph Abd al-Malik rose to leadership, he sought to demonstrate the ascendancy
of Islam over Christianity in Jerusalem and he ordered the construction of the Dome of the Rock
to compete with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on the opposite hill. Gil (1997) cites a
passage originally found in the Annals (Vol. II) of Said ibn Bitriq (Eutychius, Patriarch of
Alexandria, 876-940 C.E.), which was later shortened by Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406 C.E.) in the
Kitab al-Ibar (Vol. III) to state:
He [Caliph Abd al-Malik] built the Dome of the Rock on the site of a
Christian Church which he destroyed (as cited in Gil, p. 92).
Hence, Eutychius and Khaldun are two more sources stating a Christian church had been built
over the rock of the Praetorium (the Sakrah), which church can only be the Church of Saint
Sophia, and al-Malik destroyed it to make way for the Dome of the Rock, completed in 692 C.E.
Eutychius also provides an Omar account in which he clarifies the Christian identification
of the temple mount as the Praetorium, which differed from the site of the former temple and its
ruins:
Then Umar said to him [Sophronius]: You owe me a rightful debt. Give
me a place in which I might build a sanctuary [masjid]. The patriarch said
to him: I will give to the Commander of the Faithful a place to build a
sanctuary where the kings of Rum were unable to build. It is the rock where

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God spoke to Jacob and which Jacob called the Gate of Heaven and the Israelites
the Holy of Holies. It is in the center of the world and was a Temple for the
Israelites, who held it in great veneration and wherever they were they turned
their faces toward it during prayer. But on this condition, that you promise in
a written document that no other sanctuary will be built inside Jerusalem.
Therefore Umar ibn al-Khattab wrote him the document on this matter and
handed it over to him. They were Romans when they embraced the Christian
religion, and Helena, the mother of Constantine, built the churches of Jerusalem.
The place of the rock and the area around it were deserted ruins and they [the
Romans] poured dirt over the rock so that great was the filth above it. The
Byzantines [Rum], however, neglected it because Christ our Lord said in his
Holy Gospel Not a stone will be left upon a stone which will not be ruined and
devastated. For this reason the Christians left it as a ruin and did not build a
church over it. So Sophronius took Umar ibn al-Khattab by the hand and stood
him over the filth. Umar, taking hold of his cloak filled it with dirt and threw it
into the Valley of Gehenna. When the Muslims saw Umar ibn al-Khattab carrying
dirt with his own hands, they all immediately began carrying dirt in their cloaks
and shields and what have you until the whole place was cleansed and the rock
was revealed. Then they all said: Let us build a sanctuary and let us place the
stone at its heart. No, Umar responded. We will build a sanctuary and
place the stone at the end of the sanctuary. Therefore, Umar built a sanctuary
and put the stone at the end of it. (Baldi, 1955, pp. 447-448, as cited in Peters,
1985, p. 190; italics mine).

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Since Eutychius says of the deserted temple ruins at the time of Omar that (1) the kings of Rum
(the Byzantine kings) had been unable to build there, (2) the Romans had covered them with dirt,
and (3) the Christians had not built a church over them, he cannot simultaneously believe the
Dome of the Rock occupied the site of the former temple ruins. Instead, Eutychius associates the
temple ruins with a rock covered in filth, near the Valley of Gehenna (the Kidron in the
Byzantine era). In addition, the rock covered in filth was portable, so it could not have referred
to the Sakrah. The filth of the site matches Jeromes late fourth century description of the temple
location as a refuse dump (Commentary on Isaiah 64:11). Concomitantly, the results of several
archaeological excavations on the southeastern hill affirm that parts of it served as a garbage
disposal area (Reich, 2011). Most important, the kings (queens) of Rum had not built a church at
the center of the southeastern hill, which they considered the site of the Jewish temple, but they
had built one at the Dome of the Rock.
Although the identity of the 36-acre walled edifice changed from being the Praetorium to
the Haram esh-Sharif when the Muslims took over, then to the temple mount under the
Crusaders, then back to the Haram, a Christian monk living in Jerusalem in 1283 C.E. agreed
with the former Byzantine identity for the temple mount. An educated German Dominican monk
named Burchard (of Mount Sion), a reader of Josephus, said the following:
Mount Moriah, where the Lords Temple and the kings palace were built, was
somewhat higher than the city, as is clearly seen from the position of the Temple
and its courts as described by Josephus, since each of them is described in his
histories. But all of these places are now utterly levelled, and are almost
lower than any other part of the city, for the mount was pulled down by
the Romans and cast into the brook Kedron, together with the ruins of the

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Temple and its courts, as may be clearly seen at this day. The Temple is
square, and is more than a bowshot long and wide. The Temple which is
now built on it almost touches the city wall, which the true and ancient
Temple did not, because there were courts between it and the wall; but
now it is not more than about a hundred feet away from the wall and the
brook Kedron.
The Valley of Jehoshaphat also enclosed the city, passing along its
east side at the foot of the Mount of Olives. Though this valley is pretty
deep, yet it is much filled up; for the Romans, as Josephus tells us, when
they were besieging the city on that side, cut down the olives and other
trees, made mounds of them and filled up the valley with the mounds.
Moreover, after the city had been taken, Aelius Adrianus caused all the
ruins of the courts and the Temple to be cast into the brook Kedron, and
Mount Moriah to be levelled, so that the place might not again be fortified,
and he had the city sown with salt.(Burchard of Mount Sion, as cited in
Peters, 1985, pp. 450-451)
Burchard notes the disparity between the city of Josephus and the city he occupies, but he
confuses the actions of Simon the Hasmonean and Hadrian with those of the Romans under
Titus. He wonders at the identity of the so-called temple (apparently the Al-Aqsa Mosque),
which had been leveled and cast into the Kedron according to Josephus, yet is supposedly still
standing and much too close to the eastern wall to permit the courts described by Josephus.
In the Burchard translation published by the Palestine Pilgrims Text Society, a stunning
passage appears as follows:

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The venerable Lord and Father James of Vitry, Patriarch of Jerusalem, in his
book 2 on the conquest of the Holy Land, says, among other matters: This oftenmentioned and often-to-be-mentioned city stands altogether on a lofty mountain;
it is enclosed on all sides by a strong wall and is neither straitened by excess of
smallness nor is it likely to offend by over-greatness. It measures four bow-shots
across from wall to wall, and has also on the west side a fortress of squared stones
cemented together unbreakably with mortar and lead, which on one side serves as
a wall to the city, and is called the Tower of David. This is what some call
Antonys Tower and has on its south side Mount Sion, whereon David built him
a house, and where also he is buried, together with the other kings. He called
it the City of David. (Burchard of Sion, trans. Aubrey Stewart; italics mine).
Burchard quotes Jacques de Vitry (c. 1180-1240 C.E.) from his Historia Hiersolymitana, but the
reference to Antonys tower is his own insertion. Burchard, therefore, expresses the possibility
that the Tower of David, or the temple mount, is the Antonia Fortress, the same identity held by
the Byzantines. Burchard also correctly identifies the Mount Zion of David as the southeastern
hill.
This analysis of ancient sources, particularly from the Byzantine period, indicates the
Byzantine pilgrims and some later historians called the Roman camp the Praetorium, the same
edifice which eyewitness Eleazar, in Josephus, War VII, 8, 376 (Whiston version) described as
the only monument preserved after the siege of Titus. The Byzantines associated that monument
with the site where Christ had been tried by Pilate and where his footprints had been
memorialized on the rock of the Praetorium. The Byzantine tour circuit included the Church
of St. Sophia and the Church of the Blessed Mary, both occupying the Praetorium at the sites of

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the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. On the other hand, the Byzantines described the
temple ruins site with features related to the southeastern hill, especially Eudocias east wall of
the city, Mount Zion, and the fountain of Siloam, from where waters ran down to the pool of
Siloam.
References
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jerusalem-library.org/resources_new/Antoninus%20Martyr.pdf0.pdf

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