The Dome of the Rock is an Islamic shrine and a major landmark located on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. It was completed in 691 making it the oldest extant Islamic building in the world.

Jordan (2002) 20 Dinars (back) - Dome of the Rock

The Dome of the Rock is located at the visual center of an ancient man-made platform known as the Temple Mount to the Jews and the Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) to the Muslims. The platform, greatly enlarged under the rule of Herod the Great, was the former site of the Second Jewish Temple which was destroyed during the Roman Siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD. In 637 AD Jerusalem was conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate army during the Islamic invasion of the Byzantine Empire.

The Dome of the Rock was erected between 685 and 691 AD.

The names of the two engineers in charge of the project are given as Yazid ibn Salam from Palastine and Raja ibn Haywah from Baysan. Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan who initiated construction of the Dome, hoped that it would "house the Muslims from cold and heat", and intending the building to serve as a shrine for pilgrims and not as a mosque for public worship. Historians contend that the Caliph wished to create a structure which would compete with the existing buildings of other religions in the city.

The Dome is in the shape of a Byzantine martyrium, a structure intended for the housing and veneration of saintly relics, and is an excellent example of middle Byzantine art. al-Maqdisi reports that surplus funds consisting of 100,000 gold dinar coins were melted down and cast on the dome's exterior, "which at the time had a strong glitter that no eye could look straight at it." During the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent the exterior of the Dome of the Rock was covered with Iznik tiles.

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