Father, Son, Stone by Allan H. Goodman – Geographic Glossary 


The Old City of Jerusalem is the walled portion of the city of Jerusalem. Until the late 19th Century, this walled city comprised the entire city of Jerusalem. Within the Old City today are the Temple Mount/Noble Sanctuary and four quarters; Muslim, Jewish, Christian, and Armenian. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is in the Christian Quarter.  The Old City's current walls and city gates were built from 1535 to 1542 when Jerusalem was part of the Ottoman Empire, ruled by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.


Old City Map

A representative portion of Suleiman’s walls which surround the Old City.
The Temple Mount and the Noble Sanctuary is the area in the eastern part of the Old City of Jerusalem that is the site of the Jewish Temples (Second Temple destroyed in 70 C.E.) and the current Muslim holy sites, al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Muslims refer to this site as al-haram as-sharif the Noble Sanctuary. The plaza in front of the Western Wall is the site of Jewish worship today.
Below is an aerial schematic view of the Temple Mount/Noble Sanctuary - north (upper), south (lower). west (left) and east (right), The exposed part of the Western Wall is at the bottom lower left corner. The plaza in front of the Western Wall is bounded on the south side by a serpentine ramp that leads up to the Temple Mount. The Dome of the Rock is the gold-domed structure in the middle of the platform above. Al-Aqsa Mosque is the structure on the south edge of the platform with the silver dome.

The Kotel is the Hebrew reference to the Western Wall of the Temple Mount, meaning “the Wall.”  Also referred to as hakotel hamaaravi– "the Western Wall."  The Western Wall is not a wall of the Temple structure, but the western retaining wall of the Temple Mount built by Herod the Great in the first century B.C.E.  After the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in the first and second centuries C.E., Jerusalem was continuously rebuilt over the centuries and structures were built against the wall. By the 16th century when Jerusalem was part of the Ottoman Empire, the portion at the southern end was enclosed in an alley. During the British Mandate, the British began referring to this structure as the “Wailing Wall,” as Jews would pray in the alley against the wall, mourning the destruction of the Temple. This term is considered derogatory by Jews.  After the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, the Old City of Jerusalem was within Jordan, and Jews did not have access to the Western Wall. After Israel captured the Old City during the Six-Day War in 1968, a portion of the wall at its southern end became accessible to the Jewish people as a place of prayer.  A plaza in front of this portion of the wall was created by bulldozing the residences and other structures in the Muslim Quarter in front of this portion of the wall. Only about a fifth of the Western Wall is exposed. The remainder runs through the Muslim Quarter of the Old City and structures remain built against it.
The first picture below shows the kotel and the plaza in front, with the Dome of the Rock (gold dome on the left) and al-Aqsa Mosque (silver dome on the right) on the Temple Mount/Noble Sanctuary above.  The second picture zooms in to show the plaza in front of the kotel in more detail, including the ramp on the right which is the entrance to the Temple Mount/Noble Sanctuary above. The third picture zooms in more to show the detail of the large ashlars in the kotel. If you look closely at the third picture, on the left, on the third row of the large stones from the top of the wall, you will see the nook where the doves were perching on the cover of Father, Son, Stone.



al-Buraq's Wall is the Muslim reference to the Western Wall. According to Islamic tradition, Muhammad tied his winged steed al-Buraq to this wall during his mystical night journey to Jerusalem before he ascended to Heaven from the rock later enclosed in the Dome of the Rock
al-Aqsa Mosque stands on the southern portion of the Temple Mount. The first Muslim place of worship was built on the site by the second Muslim Caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab in the 7th Century C.E. soon after the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem.  The current structure pictured below was built later by the fifth Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik or his successor al-Walid I.
al-Aqsa Mosque, from the East
The Dome of the Rock is the gold-domed octagonal Muslim shrine that stands in the middle of the Noble Sanctuary, built by Caliph abd-al Malik in the 7th century C.E. Muslims revere the rock that is under the dome as the place from which Muhammed ascended to Heaven and conversed with other prophets, including Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, during his mystical night journey to Jerusalem.  The original mosaics on the outside of the structure were replaced with brightly colored, mostly blue and white ceramic tiles during the reign of Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in the 16th century.


The Dome of the Rock, from the West with the Mount of Olives behind.


The Interior of the Dome of the Rock with the rock in the center
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is built over the traditional site of the crucifixion and burial place of Jesus. It is in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. During the first century C.E., this area was just outside of the existing city walls.  It was known as “the Place of the Skull,” (Calvary in Latin, Golgotha in Biblical Greek and Hebrew, Golgolta in Aramaic) because the hill appeared to be a large skull arising from the ground. During the 4th Century C.E., the church was first constructed by order of Constantine the Great, and was known as the Church of the Resurrection (Anastasis).  It has been built and rebuilt many times, having survived fire, earthquake and other man-made destruction through the centuries.


The Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The larger dome is over the site of the crucifixion and the smaller dome is over the site of the tomb (resurrection).
Silwan is a predominantly Palestinian district in East Jerusalem, southeast of the Old City of Jerusalem and outside the walls of the Old City.  “The City of David,” an archaeological excavation, primarily conducted by the Israeli Antiquities Authority, covers about 15 acres, approximately 6 percent of Silwan. The excavation site is believed to be the ancient site of King David's Jerusalem.  This area is also the location of the Pool of Siloam, where Jesus healed the blind man.
Below is a view of Silwan from the Mount of Olives looking west towards the eastern wall of the Temple Mount/Noble Sanctuary.  The Dome of the Rock is in the middle of the view, al-Aqsa is to the left moving south, and the northern edge of the neighborhood of Silwan is visible on the extreme left outside the walls of the Old City to the left of the winding road.
The Supreme Court of Israel is located in Jerusalem's governmental campus, close to Israel’s legislature, the Knesset.  The secret hearing in Father, Son, Stone takes place in a secure underground courtroom in the Supreme Court of Israel.  The author has no knowledge of the existence of an underground courtroom.
Aerial view of the Supreme Court of Israel and Knesset – the Exterior Courtyard of the Arches is behind the Pyramid which is on top of the structure on the left      
Virtual Tour of the Supreme Court of Israel, beginning with the exterior Courtyard of the Arches, which the Justices’ Chambers surround