Aqsa Mosque, which is the Temple Mount in the Old City - the third most important holy Islamic world. Tradition says that here ascended to heaven Prophet Muhammad after his night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem.

The Temple Mount - the holiest site in Judaism: it is here were the first Temple of Solomon (Navuhudonosora destroyed army in 586 BC. E.) And the Second Temple, destroyed by the Romans in the year 70. He is survived by a powerful artificial platform on which in the year 705 under the Umayyads was a small prayer house, a distant predecessor of the present mosque.

The miraculous night journey of Prophet Muhammad (Isra) took almost a century earlier, in about 621 year. According to the hadith, the Prophet tells the story of the night appeared to him the angel Gabriel, and offered to go to Jerusalem. Intelligent animals Burak (sparkling, with a human face, "above and below the donkey mule") delivered in no time travelers to the gate of the temple. Here the prophet met with Ibrahim, Musa and Isa (Abraham, Moses and Jesus) and led them to a prayer. After that Mohammed ascended to the throne of Allah (made Miraj). Hadith state: on the way he saw heaven and hell, then got the mandatory indication of Allah for Muslims five times daily prayer, after which he returned to Mecca.

Indicates that looked like the temple in the days of the Prophet Muhammad, no. However, we know that the Umayyad Mosque, built in the year 746 was destroyed by an earthquake. Caliph al-Mansur reinstated it in 754, al-Mahdi rebuilt in the year 780. But in 1033 a new earthquake destroyed much of the al-Aqsa Mosque. During repair the mosque received important additions: the dome, beautiful facade, the minarets. In 1099 the Crusaders captured Jerusalem, when they immediately placed the church, the palace stables. Large construction works were the Templars, arranged in building its headquarters. The mosque was restored after Saladin reconquered the city for the Muslim world in 1187.

In the following centuries al-Aqsa repaired and being completed during the Ayyubid, Mamluk Ottoman Empire. Nowadays, when the old city is under Israeli control, the area of ​​the Temple Mount, along with a mosque in the Muslim Waqf transferred. This means that the Israeli state has transferred the land and buildings located on it for religious purposes and can not take them back.

The mosque is huge: 83 meters long, 56 meters wide. At the same time, it can accommodate five thousand worshipers. Its large dome, originally rested on wooden structures, in 1969 was replaced by concrete. The oldest of the four minarets, on the southwest corner, erected in 1278 by order of the Mamluk sultan of Lachin. The facade of the mosque bizarrely mixed legacy of the great era of the Fatimids and Romanesque arches erected by the Crusaders. The most notable part of the interior - stained glass window 121, the remainder of the Abbasid and Fatimid periods. The drum of the dome and the walls are decorated with mosaics underneath, columns - made of white marble.