Papal Visit Purim Millennium Snow in Jer. And under all that was the spot upon which, according to Jewish tradition, Abraham almost sacrificed his son Isaac, on the bedrock of Mount Moriah. At the bottom of that ramp is a sign warning Jews not to enter the Temple Mount, for fear of stepping upon the spot where the Holy of Holies stood, and many will not go up for that reason. Others will not enter because the Moslem buildings are there and the Wakf, the Moslem religious authority, has administrative control. And still others try to go up specifically because of that, to conduct public prayer services.
Israeli soldiers keep a muted presence on the periphery.
Any incident can spin out of control and in a moment flash across television screens around the world. If passion and tension could be quantified, this would be the most expensive real estate in the world. Yet there it stands gleaming before you, that golden dome. Its hue subtly changes with the day's shifting sunlight. Completed in 691, after only three years of construction, it will carry you back toward the beginnings of the Islamic empire, within the first century of the religion's inception to just 60 years after the death of its progenitor, the prophet Mohammed.