Note 329 — Chapter XX · CONQUEST OF PALESTINE. A.H. XV. A.D. 636.

The Haram, is the sacred inclosure on the S.E. corner of Mount Zion. It is minutely described by Ali Bey, vol. ii. p. 214, with its two great mosques, Masjid al Acksa (said to be the Basilica of the Virgin) and Kubbet al Sakhra (the Dome of the Stone),—where also will be found plans and sketches of the same. Until the Crimean War, the Haram was guarded, as sacredly as Mecca itself, from the tread of an infidel. But it is now more or less accessible, and an elaborate survey of the two Mosques and their surroundings has recently been made by the Palestine Exploration Society: see their Proceedings, January 1880.

The Kubbet al Sakhra, or ‘Dome of the Stone,’ has been built polygonal to meet the shape of the ‘Stone,’ or Rock referred to in the text, which gives its name to the Mosque. This rock rises to a height of six or seven feet from a base, according to Ali Bey, 33 feet in diameter (or, according to others, 57 feet long and 43 wide). The architecture is Byzantine, but Greek builders were no doubt engaged for its construction. There is probably little, if anything, of original Christian building in the present Haram.

Ali Bey describes the Sakhra itself as a stony apex cropping out from the rock, which, when Mahomet stood upon it, ‘sensible of the happiness of bearing the holy burden, depressed itself, and becoming soft like wax, received the print of his holy foot upon the upper part.... This print is now covered with large sort of cage of gilt metal wire, worked in such a manner that the print cannot be seen on account of the darkness within, but it may be touched with the hand through a hole made on purpose. The believers, after having touched the print, proceed to sanctify themselves by passing the hand over the face and beard.’ (Travels of Ali Bey, vol. ii. p. 220.)