This is a timeline of major events in the History of the Temple Mount; a small piece of land today known as the Haram as-Sharif.

circa 2000 BCE

Abraham Sacrifices
Abraham takes his son^[note] to the Mount Moriah[note] to be sacrificed.

circa 1000 BCE

David Plans the Temple
David plans to build the Holy Temple and chooses the site where the Temple is to be built, at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. (2 Samuel 24:16-18; 2 Chronicles 3:1).

circa 950 BCE

Temple of Solomon
Solomon with the help of Hiram of Tyre and 183, 600 workers builds the First Temple and royal palace. He uses local limestone, cedar from Lebanon and great amounts of gold and silver. (1 Kings 5:9, 2 Chronicles 2). Solomon also enlarges the city. (1 Kings 7:1-12). Building of temple takes seven years.

circa 910 BCE

Invasion of Shishak
Solomon's Temple is plundered by Shishak (Sheshonk) Pharaoh of Egypt. Much gold and silver are taken. (1 Kings 14:25-28, 2 Chronicles 12:1-11).

circa 835 BCE

Jehoash Repairs the Temple
Jehoash of Judah repairs the Temple, establishes maintenance fund, and brings period of revival and reform to the southern kingdom. (2 Kings 12:5ff).

circa 720 BCE

Altar of Ahaz
Ahaz king of Judah dismantles Solomon's bronze vessels and places private Syrian altar in the Temple (2 Kings 16:1-20, 2 Chronicles 29-31). He later stripped the gold to pay tribute to Sennacherib.

circa 640 BCE

Josiah Repairs the Temple
King Josiah repairs the Temple and brings about national religious reforms (2 Chronicles 34-35). Last mention of the Ark of the Covenant.

circa 597 BCE

First Babylonian Siege of Jerusalem
Temple is plundered by Nebuchadnezzar for the first time. And king Jehoiachin is carried captive by Nebuchadnezzar and the second wave of Jews is taken into Babylon, Ezekiel among them (2 Kings 24:10-16; 2 Chronicles 36:10; Ezekiel 1:2).

circa 586 BCE

Second Babylonian Siege
Nebuchadnezzar destroys the Temple and burns the city of Jerusalem.

circa 573 BCE

Vision of Ezekiel
The prophet Ezekiel, a captive in Babylon, receives a vision from God giving great detail of a future Temple that is to be built.

circa 538 BCE

Edict of Cyrus
The edict of Cyrus opens the way for the Jews in Babylon to return to the land and rebuild the Temple (Ezra 1:1-4). The seventy years of captivity are over. Cyrus the Persian gives the decree as the prophet Isaiah had predicted 170 years earlier.

circa 536 BCE

Foundation of the Second Temple
Feast of Tabernacles kept in Jerusalem, and foundation of temple laid, (Ezra 3). Then Temple building stopped for 16 years.

circa 517 BCE

Completion and Dedication of the Second Temple
Through the leadership of Nehemiah and Zerubbabel, the Second Temple is completed despite fierce opposition and delays. An altar of sacrifice is built on the Temple Mount. Temple is completed after a fifteen year delay.

circa 175 BCE

Antiochus Epiphanes Plunders the Temple
Antiochus IV Epiphanes pluders the Second Temple and erects an altar to Zeus, outlaws Sabbath and circumcision, and sacks the city of Jerusalem.

circa 167 BCE

Maccabean Revolt Starts
The Maccabean Revolt was a Jewish rebellion, starting from 167 BCE, led by the Maccabees against the Seleucid Empire and the Hellenistic influence on Jewish life.

circa 164/3 BCE

Maccabean Revolt Ends
The Maccabees capture Jerusalem following the Battle of Beth Zur, and rededicate the Temple.

circa 63 BCE

Pompey Captures Temple Mount
Jerusalem is captured by the Roman general Pompey. Pompey enters the holy of holies in the Temple.

circa 19 BCE

Herodian Temple Mount
Herod expands the Temple Mount, whose retaining walls include the Western Wall, and rebuilds the Temple (Herod's Temple).

circa 6/4 BCE

Birth of Jesus
The Birth of Jesus, and his presentation at the Temple, 40 days after his birth in Bethlehem.

circa 28/30 CE

Cleansing of the Temple
Jesus drives the merchants and moneylenders from Herod's Temple.

circa 40 CE

Statue of Caligula
Caligula orders that a golden statue of himself be set up in the Temple in Jerusalem.

circa 50 CE

Paul at the Temple
Paul of Tarsus is arrested in Jerusalem after he is attacked by a mob in the Temple (Acts 21:26–39) and defends his actions before a sanhedrin.

circa 70 CE

Titus Destroys Herod's Temple
Siege of Jerusalem by Titus, eldest son of Emperor Vespasian, ends the major portion of First Jewish–Roman War and destroys Herod's Temple. The Roman legion Legio X Fretensis is garrisoned in the city.

circa 136/140 CE

Temple of Jupiter
A Roman temple dedicated to Jupiter is built on the Temple Mount.

circa 361 CE

Alypius of Antioch
In order to reduce the growing influence of Christianity, Alypius of Antioch is commissioned to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem and Jews are allowed to return to the city.

circa 610-615 CE

Third Temple?
in 610, a vassal Jewish state called, the Sassanid Jewish Commonwealth, was setup after the Sassanid Empire drove the Byzantine Empire out of the Middle East, giving the Jews control of Jerusalem for the first time in centuries. During this time construction of a Jewish Temple was started, which was never completed. This partially constructed temple was torn down and the site was converted in to a garbage dump.

circa 637 CE

Muslim Conquest
When the Muslim army took control of the Holy city of Jerusalem, the Temple Mount was a garbage dump. A popular account is that the Rashidun Caliph Umar was led to the place reluctantly by the Christian patriarch Sophronius. He found it covered with rubbish, but the sacred Rock was found with the help of a converted Jew, Ka'b al-Ahbar.

circa 637/38 CE

First Mosque
According to tradition al-Ahbar advised Umar to build a mosque to the north of the rock, so that worshippers would face both the rock and Mecca, but instead Umar chose to build it to the south of the rock. It became known as the al-Aqsa Mosque (Masjid Umar). According to Muslim sources, Jews participated in the construction of the haram, laying the groundwork for both the Al-Aqsa and Dome of the Rock mosques.

circa 640 CE

Haram as-Sharif
Now known as the Nobal Sanctuary in Arabic, the language of conquering army, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem becomes the focal point for Muslim salat (prayers), known as the First Qibla, following Muhammad's initial revelations (Wahy).

circa 691 CE

Dome of the Rock
In 691 an octagonal Islamic building, known as the Dome of the Rock (قبة الصخرة, Qubbat as-Sakhra), topped by a dome was built by the Caliph Abd al-Malik around the rock, for a myriad of political, dynastic and religious reasons, built on local and Quranic traditions articulating the site's holiness, a process in which textual and architectural narratives reinforced one another.

circa 715 CE

First Masjid al-Aqsa
The Umayyads, led by the Caliph al-Walid I, built the Aqsa Mosque (المسجد الأقصى, al-Masjid al-Aqsa, lit. "Furthest Mosque"), corresponding to the Islamic belief of Muhammad's miraculous nocturnal journey as recounted in the Quran and hadith. The term "Noble Sanctuary" or "Haram al-Sharif", as it was called later by the Mamluks and Ottomans, refers to the whole area that surrounds that Rock.