This is, according to Smithsonian Magazine, why the Temple Mount is so important: "Jewish tradition holds that it is the site where God gathered the dust to create Adam and where Abraham nearly sacrificed his son Isaac to prove his faith. King Solomon, according to the Bible, built the First Temple of the Jews on this mountaintop circa 1000 BC... It is here that, according to the Gospel of John, Jesus Christ lashed out against the money changers (and was later crucified a few hundred yards away)." As for Muslims, "They believe it was here that the Prophet Muhammad ascended to the “Divine Presence” on the back of a winged horse—the Miraculous Night Journey, commemorated by one of Islam’s architectural triumphs, the Dome of the Rock shrine."
The tradition is a huge part of the environment. For 3,000 years, since King Solomon, the Jewish people have had the temple as one of the central pillars of their religion. The Western Wall represents a loss for the Jewish people, but also a complicated relationship as the two other major monotheistic religions, Islam and Christianity, also claim holy sites here, sometimes in the same places. It has been centuries and there continues to be ethnic, religious and cultural beauty and conflict at this religious site.
