Israel-Day7-Temple Mount

We entered the city through the Dung Gate.

View of the Western Wall (what we call the Wailing Wall) from the ramp up to the Temple Mount. This wall is a retaining wall, remnant of the second temple You can see the small wall that separates the men's part from the women's part. We had to go through security before entering the Temple Mount-no bibles or praying are allowed. Other names for the Temple Mount are The Place, Mt Zion (differs from Zion), the mountain of the Lord, and Mt Moriah.

Dome of the Rock is the Muslim shrine to Allah on the Temple Mount built around 691 CE. The actual mosque (El-Aqsa) is underneath. You are required to remove your shoes which is worship of Allah so we did not go inside. The first Jewish temple was built on this site by King Soloman in 950 BC and lasted until 586 BCE when the Jews went into Babylonian exile. The second temple was built by King Herod in 516 BCE and lasted until 70 CE when it was destroyed by the Romans which Jesus predicted in Matt 24:2. The size of the Temple Mount is 144,000 metric cubes (Rev 7:1 and 14:1 mentions the 144,000 sealed Jews). The White house is the same size.

This is the Golden Gate (aka Gates of Mercy) located on the Eastern side. It is believed that the Messiah will return through this gate. Ottoman Sultan Suleiman had the gate sealed off to prevent that from happening. The Muslims also placed a cemetery on the outside of the gate to make it "unclean" as another deterrent. Snap, guess he'll have to figure out another way-ha ha.

Another view through one of the 7 gates which according to Muslims represents entrance to heaven.

Luke 2:41: Mary and Joseph accidentally left Jesus here (his father's house) when he was 12.
Mark 11:15: Jesus angrily drives out the money changers. People would come from long distances and would travel with only enough to buy/exchange for their sacrifice and a love offering. The money changers were overcharging so the people had nothing left over to give for the love offering.