used by the Knights Templars; nearly in the centre is a raised platform paved with marble, and rising from this is the well-known Mosque, Kubbet es-Sakhrah, with its beautifully proportioned dome. Within this sacred enclosure stood the temple of the Jews; but all traces of it have long since disappeared, and its exact position was a fiercely contested question before the time of the recent explorations.
The Haram is a quadrangle of about 35 acres in area. The angles at the south-west and north-east corners are right angles, and the south-east angle is 92° 30´. The true bearing of the east wall is 352° 30´ (general direction). The length of the south wall is 922 feet on the level of the interior. The west wall is 1601 feet long; the east wall, 1530 feet. The northern boundary for 350 feet is formed by a scarp of rock 30 feet high, projecting at the north-west of the Haram.
The modern gateways giving entrance into the interior are eleven in number: three on the north and eight on the west. Of the ancient gateways there were two on the south, now called the Double and Triple Gates; while east of the latter is the mediæval entrance, known as the Single Gate, beneath which Colonel Warren discovered a passage. On the east wall is the Golden Gate, now closed; and two small posterns in the modern masonry are found south of this portal. On the west wall the Prophet's Gateway (sometimes called Barclay's Gate) is recognised as the southern of the two Parbar (or Suburban) Gates, mentioned in the Talmud; while the Northern Suburban Gate appears to have been converted into a tank, and lies immediately west of the Dome of the Rock. (This is Tank No. 30, Ordnance Survey.)
The raised platform in the middle of the Haram enclosure has an area of about 5 acres, and is an irregular quadrangle. The Kubbet es-Sakhrah, or Dome of the
