How to Visit the Temple Mount as a Non-Muslim

The Two Published Hour Lists

The two sources used here are the Christian Information Center's opening hours list and travel blog figures. They do not match. The Christian Information Center list gives summer hours of 7:30 to 11:00 and 13:30 to 14:30, Sunday to Thursday, and winter hours of 7:30 to 10:00 and 12:30 to 13:30. Blog sources give summer as 8:30 to 11:30 and 13:30 to 14:30, and winter as 7:30 to 10:30 and 12:30 to 13:30. The table sets them side by side so you can see the gap yourself. The practical reading is the same either way: arrive for the morning window opening, because the afternoon slot is only about an hour. The Jerusalem Islamic Waqf manages the site and Israel has held security control since 1967. Entry is not guaranteed because the site can close at any time.

One more source note worth knowing: the Christian Information Center's list says foreign visitors enter from the Western Wall plaza, which matches the Mughrabi Gate route described further down this page. The list leads the table.

Closed Days and the No-Guarantee Rule

The Temple Mount is closed to non-Muslim visitors on Friday and Saturday according to the Christian Information Center's list. The site is also closed on religious holidays, so check around any festival period. That leaves five visiting days a week, and even then entry is not guaranteed because the site can close at any time. Ten of the platform's eleven gates are for Muslims and only one, the Mughrabi Gate, is for non-Muslims.

The timing shapes your whole Old City day. The morning window is the realistic one, and it ends by 11:00 at the latest on the Christian Information Center list, so it pairs with the Western Wall below, whose plaza has no such restriction, or with a rampart walk. If you would rather hand the timing problem to a guide, the Jerusalem Old City Tour from Tel Aviv lists the Temple Mount among its sites on days it is open, and the Private Holy City Tour at $190 per person offers a customizable itinerary. For a DIY plan, the Jerusalem Old City itinerary page puts the morning hours in context, and the gates of Jerusalem Old City guide covers the approaches.

The Mughrabi Gate Ramp

Non-Muslims enter the Temple Mount only through the Mughrabi Gate, reached by a wooden bridge above the Western Wall plaza. The Christian Information Center says foreign visitors enter from the plaza. From Jaffa Gate or Zion Gate, the Western Wall Heritage Foundation gives the walk to the Wall plaza as 15 to 20 minutes. The gates of Jerusalem Old City guide covers the gates.

The platform measures about 150,000 m2, roughly 37 acres, and stands about 740 m above sea level. Its sides run 488 m on the west, 470 m on the east, 315 m on the north and 280 m on the south. Al-Aqsa Mosque is on the southern end of the platform, and its courtyard can hold over 400,000 worshippers. If the gate is shut when you arrive, and the no-guarantee rule means it can be, the fallback is the Old City around it rather than the platform itself.

Security, Passport and Dress Code

Expect airport-style security at the Mughrabi Gate. Visitors should carry a passport. There is no ticket and no stated fee for the visit itself in the published sources, so the only planning costs are your time and the queue. Go early in the window, because a late arrival in a slot that ends at 10:00 in winter gives you minutes rather than a visit.

The published dress code is: women wear knee-length skirts or trousers with covered arms and chest, and men wear trousers below the knee. Non-Muslim prayer and religious items are prohibited, and non-Muslim visitors cannot enter the Dome of the Rock or Al-Aqsa Mosque. Both buildings are seen from outside only. The Mount of Olives guide covers a nearby viewpoint.

The Size of the Platform

The Temple Mount covers about 150,000 square metres (37 acres) and stands about 740 metres above sea level. The platform is not square. Sources give its sides as 488 metres on the west, 470 metres on the east, 315 metres on the north and 280 metres on the south. It has eleven gates in total. Ten serve Muslim worshippers and one, the Mughrabi Gate, serves non-Muslims. The Jerusalem Islamic Waqf manages the site while Israel has held security control since 1967. For orientation across the whole walled city, the Old City map page puts the platform in context.

Herod the Great enlarged the natural plateau around 19 BCE with retaining walls and fill, and those retaining walls are what you see from below. The Western Wall is the western retaining wall, part of which is exposed at the plaza.

• Platform area: about 150,000 square metres (37 acres)
• Height: about 740 metres above sea level
• Sides: 488 m west, 470 m east, 315 m north, 280 m south
• Gates: 11 total, 10 for Muslims and 1 for non-Muslims

The Dome of the Rock

The Dome of the Rock was completed in 691 to 692 CE under Caliph Abd al-Malik, and Kufic inscriptions inside record that completion date in 72 AH. Its dome is about 20.48 metres high, and the central dome rests on 16 supports made of 4 piers and 12 columns. Inside there are about 1,200 square metres of mosaics.

Suleiman the Magnificent later replaced the exterior mosaics with Ottoman tiles, and the dome was refitted in 1959 to 1964 with aluminium-bronze plates covered in gold leaf, then regilded in 1993 with 80 kilograms of gold funded by King Hussein of Jordan. Non-Muslims cannot enter the building. It is viewed from outside only.

The full architecture story and the interior detail are on the Dome of the Rock page.

Al-Aqsa Mosque

Al-Aqsa Mosque stands at the southern end of the Temple Mount, and its courtyard can hold over 400,000 worshippers. Like the Dome of the Rock, it is closed to non-Muslim visitors. The sealed Single, Double and Triple Gates, also called the Huldah Gates, are in the southern wall of the platform.

In the eastern wall the Golden Gate dates from the 6th century and was last sealed in 1541.

History in Short

The platform's visible history runs in three layers. Herod the Great rebuilt and doubled the plateau around 19 BCE with retaining walls and fill, and the lower seven courses of the western wall date to that work. The present walls of the Old City around it were built under Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, in the 16th century.

The Dome of the Rock was completed in 691 to 692 CE. The Golden Gate in the eastern wall is from the 6th century. In 1967, after the Moroccan Quarter beside the wall was cleared within 48 hours and about 650 residents displaced, the Western Wall plaza was opened.

Tours That Include the Temple Mount

Every listing below names the Temple Mount with the words "when open" in its own site list, because entry is not guaranteed and the site can close at any time. None of the three includes the entry itself as a paid item, and none promises the platform stop. When the compound is closed on your day, each falls back on what it still covers. The Jerusalem Old City walking tour at $57 per person keeps its 4-hour route from Jaffa Gate to the Western Wall, the Via Dolorosa and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Old City tour from Tel Aviv at $90 per person still gives you 10.5 hours with transport and all four quarters. The boutique tour from Tel Aviv at $180 per person still walks the Mount of Olives and the Old City in a group capped at 18.

When the platform is shut, a good substitute viewpoint is the Mount of Olives, which is a viewpoint that the Old City tour from Tel Aviv and the boutique tour both include in their route.

What the Tours Do Not Include

The honest list, taken from each card. All three state that entry fees are not listed as included, and none of them lists food or hotel pickup. The Tel Aviv tours meet at fixed points, the Old City tour at the operator's office on HaRakevet St 8 in Tel Aviv and the boutique tour at Rothschild Boulevard 22 at 9.30 am, with other pickup points only on the operator's confirmation.

All three offer free cancellation 24 hours ahead. If you want the platform as the main part of your day, go on your own through the Mughrabi Gate on a Sunday to Thursday morning within the posted hours, then take a guided walk afterwards for the rest of the Old City.