The Temple Mount: Sacred Space
This is where God chose to reside, the place to which the nation of Israel came on the three pilgrimage festivals to see and be seen, the only place where sacrifices to God were permitted, the place that Jews worldwide face in prayer.
Situated on the summit of Mount Moriah, an immense platform bounded by massive retaining walls, presently occupied by The Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque, is sited precisely on the foundations of the Second Temple built by Herod which replaced the Temple compound built by King Solomon and long before, the site of God’s supreme test of Abraham – the sacrifice of Isaac.
Surrounded by Mount Scopus, The Mount of Olives, Abu-Dis hill, and The Mount of Evil Council, Mount Moriah lies below them, as if in a bowl, the visual beauty of The Temple Mount’s site and its spirituality are intertwined.
Everything changed with the real-estate boom following the Six Day War. It was then that Jerusalem, the Old City and The Temple Mount began to be seen as commodities, their spiritual and visual qualities to be sold to the highest bidder, their closely interrelated natural and man-made beauty, built over centuries, disregarded, human scale smashed.
The second wave of attacks on the city’s ancient historic character, still with us today, began when Ehud Olmert became the city’s Mayor in 1993, the infamous “Holyland Park” project its symbol.
The Old City, small in scale, is a World Heritage Site. The towers that have been built and are being built today surrounding it, hi – rise walls of greed, mar its visual basin.
Among the latest blasphemies, the incredibly insensitive cable car proposal by Israel’s Minister of Tourism – Yariv Levine and the Jerusalem Development Authority, approved in 2019 despite hundreds of public objections and petitions to the Supreme Court, to transport tourists and visitors to the Old City. The system’s tall support pylons are certain to impact the Old City’s skyline. Access alternatives such as small vehicles and site-specific elevators were not studied. Renowned architect Moshe Safdie criticized the proposal saying that it sets an unprecedented damaging visual standard no other major historic city would permit.
With little respect for her ancient and spiritual past and the unique beauty of her landscape, every red line has by now been crossed, The Holy City’s character has been decided for decades, perhaps for centuries to come. Architecture is said to be a reflection of its time. If this be true, today’s society is spiritually destitute.
Gerard Heumann – Architect and Urban Designer, Jerusalem
