So, You Wanted To Know Something About the Temple Mount?

Reuters defines the Temple Mount:

Following is a list of holy sites in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth that Pope Benedict plans to visit during his Holy Land pilgrimage.

JERUSALEM:

TEMPLE MOUNT/AL-HARAM AL-SHARIF (The Noble Sanctuary)

* Pope will visit on Tuesday morning.

* It is home to the gilded 7th-century Dome of the Rock, a fixture of the Jerusalem skyline, and built over the spot where Jews, Muslims and Christians believe Abraham was about to sacrifice his son to God before an angel stayed his hand.

The 8th-century al-Aqsa mosque also stands on the stone esplanade. Judaism's Western Wall, a Jewish prayer site believed to be a perimeter wall of the second biblical Temple, is below. [no date?]

* In Muslim tradition, Mohammad ascended into heaven from the rock at the centre of what is now the Dome of the Rock.

* The Temple Mount is the most sacred site in Judaism. Jews believe biblical King Solomon built the first temple there 3,000 years ago. A second temple was razed by the Romans in AD 70. [so why didn't this precede the previous entry?]

* Muslims see al-Haram al-Sharif as the third holiest site after the cities of Mecca and Medina in modern Saudi Arabia.

* Christians believe Jesus taught at the temple during the Roman period and drove out money-changers.

* Israel captured the site in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it with the rest of East Jerusalem and adjoining parts of the West Bank in a move not recognised internationally.

* The compound is administered by an Islamic trust known as the Waqf. Jordan's king also has a role in maintaining the site.

* Many, but not all, Jews believe they are forbidden by ritual law from visiting the Temple Mount out of fear they might tread on sacred ground where the faithful believe the Holy of Holies, which enshrined the Ark of the Covenant, once stood.

* A Palestinian uprising erupted in 2000 after then Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon visited the compound.

Reuters is so...trustworthy.