Jerusalem: Dome of the Rock

This photograph shows the Dome of the Rock (Arabic: "Kubbat as Sakhra") looking east. For centuries it was misnamed the Mosque of Omar. Omar did erect a simple wooden mosque at the site, but that was replaced by his successor Caliph Abd al-Malik, who commissioned the present octagonal shrine, which was begun in 687 CE and completed in 691 CE. In the background, to the right, you can see the Mount of Olives with its ancient Jewish cemetery on the slopes. The distant bell tower is from the Russian Monastery of the Ascension and the onion-shaped domes just to the left of the Dome of the Rock belong to the Russian Church of St. Mary Magdalene, built in the 19th century. In the forefront are houses of the Old City of Jerusalem.