Foundation Stone
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The Foundation Stone, or the Noble Rock is the rock at the center of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. It is also known as the Pierced Stone, because it has a small hole on the southeastern corner that enters a cavern beneath the rock, known as the Well of Souls.
The Foundation Stone in the floor of the Dome of the Rock shrine in Jerusalem. The round hole at upper left penetrates to a small cave, known as the Well of Souls, below. The cage-like structure just beyond the hole covers the stairway entrance to the cave (south is towards the top of the image).
The bottom of the Foundation Stone, photo taken from the Well of Souls
1859 watercolor of the Foundation Stone by Carl Haag
Picture of the Foundation Stone taken in the second half of the 20th century
Dome of the Rock
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The Dome of the Rock is an Islamic shrine at the center of the Al-Aqsa mosque compound on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. It is the world's oldest surviving work of Islamic architecture, the earliest archaeologically attested religious structure to be built by a Muslim ruler and its inscriptions contain the earliest epigraphic proclamations of Islam and of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
The Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount (Al-Aqsa) in the Old City of Jerusalem
Cross section of the Dome (print from 1887, after the first detailed drawings of the Dome, made by the English artist Frederick Catherwood in 1833).
Reconstruction of Herod's Temple as seen from the east (Holyland Model of Jerusalem, 1966)
Depiction of the Templum Domini on the reverse side of the seal of the Knights Templar