The Well of Souls (; sometimes translated Pit of Souls, Cave of Spirits, or Well of Spirits), is a partly natural, partly man-made

cave Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's Planetary surface, surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance undergrou ...

located inside the

Foundation Stone A cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry Foundation (engineering), foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entir ...

("Noble Rock" in

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

) under the

Dome of the Rock The Dome of the Rock () is an Islamic shrine at the center of the Al-Aqsa mosque compound on the Temple Mount in the Old City (Jerusalem), Old City of Jerusalem. It is the world's oldest surviving work of Islamic architecture, the List_of_the_ol ...

shrine on the

Temple Mount The Temple Mount (), also known as the Noble Sanctuary (Arabic: الحرم الشريف, 'Haram al-Sharif'), and sometimes as Jerusalem's holy esplanade, is a hill in the Old City of Jerusalem, Old City of Jerusalem that has been venerated as a ...

( Haram al-Sharif) in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

. During the Crusader period, it was known to

Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...

as the "

Holy of Holies The Holy of Holies ( or ''Kodesh HaKodashim''; also ''hadDəḇīr'', 'the Sanctuary') is a term in the Hebrew Bible that refers to the inner sanctuary of the Tabernacle, where the Shekhinah (God in Judaism, God's presence) appeared. According ...

", referring to the inner sanctum of the former Jewish Temple, which, according to modern scholarship, was probably located on top of the Foundation Stone. The name "Well of Souls" derives from a medieval Islamic legend that at this place the spirits of the dead can be heard awaiting

Judgment Day The Last Judgment is a concept found across the Abrahamic religions and the '' Frashokereti'' of Zoroastrianism. Christianity considers the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to entail the final judgment by God of all people who have ever lived, res ...

, although this is not a mainstream view in

Sunni Islam Sunni Islam is the largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any Succession to Muhammad, successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr ...

. The name has also been applied to a depression in the floor of this cave and a hypothetical chamber that may exist beneath it.

History and context

Judaism and Islam

The Well of Souls is located under the

, an exposed bedrock which lies directly under the

. The Dome of the Rock stands on the location of the destroyed Second Jewish Temple (built around 516 BCE to replace

Solomon's Temple Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple (), was a biblical Temple in Jerusalem believed to have existed between the 10th and 6th centuries Common Era, BCE. Its description is largely based on narratives in the Hebrew Bible, in which it ...

), which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. In traditional Jewish sources, the Foundation Stone is considered the place from which the creation of the world began, t.

Yoma Yoma (Aramaic: יומא, lit. "The Day") is the fifth tractate of '' Seder Moed'' ('Order of Festivals') of the ''Mishnah'' and of the ''Talmud''. It is concerned mainly with the laws of the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur, on which Jews atone for t ...

2:12; y. Yoma 5:3; b. Yoma 54b; PdRK 26:4; Lev. R. 20:4. and where

Abraham Abraham (originally Abram) is the common Hebrews, Hebrew Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father who began the Covenant (biblical), covenanta ...

prepared to sacrifice his son

Isaac Isaac ( ; ; ; ; ; ) is one of the three patriarchs (Bible), patriarchs of the Israelites and an important figure in the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the Baháʼí Faith. Isaac first appears in the Torah, in wh ...

The rock of the Dome of the Rock Corrected

, the Foundation Stone is known as the Noble Rock.

Al-Tabari Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr ibn Yazīd al-Ṭabarī (; 839–923 CE / 224–310 AH), commonly known as al-Ṭabarī (), was a Sunni Muslim scholar, polymath, historian, exegete, jurist, and theologian from Amol, Tabaristan, present- ...

, a Muslim writer of the 9th century CE, identified the rock with the place where the Romans had "buried the temple [] at the time of the sons of Israel." Some modern Muslims believe it to be the spot from which Muhammad ascended to heaven during his (Isra and Mi'raj, 'Night Journey'). According to a medieval Islamic tradition, the Foundation Stone tried to follow Muhammad as he ascended, leaving his footprint here while pulling up and hollowing out the cave below. The impression of the hand of the

Archangel Gabriel In the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), Gabriel ( ) is an archangel with the power to announce God's will to mankind, as the messenger of God. He is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and the Quran. Many Chris ...

, made as he restrained the Stone from rising, is nearby. Both Jewish and Muslim traditions relate to what may lie beneath the Foundation Stone, the earliest of them found in the

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

in the former and understood to date to the 12th and 13th centuries in the latter. The Talmud indicates that the Stone marks the center of the world and serves as a cover for the Abyss () containing the raging waters of the

Flood A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant con ...

. The cave was venerated as early as 902 according to Ibn al-Faqih. Muslim tradition likewise places it at the center of the world and over a bottomless pit with the flowing waters of Paradise underneath. A palm tree is said to grow out of the River of Paradise here to support the Stone.

Noah Noah (; , also Noach) appears as the last of the Antediluvian Patriarchs (Bible), patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5–9), the Quran and Baháʼí literature, ...

is said to have landed here after the Flood. The souls of the dead are said to be audible here as they await the Last Judgment, although this is not a mainstream view in Sunni Islam.

Crusader period

The Foundation Stone and its cave entered fully into the Christian tradition after the

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding ...

conquered Jerusalem in 1099. These Europeans converted the Dome of the Rock into a church, calling it in (the 'Temple of the Lord'). They made many radical physical changes to the site at this time, including cutting away much of the rock to make staircases and paving the Stone over with marble slabs. The main entrance of the cave was enlarged, and Europeans of the Crusades are probably also responsible for creating the shaft ascending from the center of the chamber. The Crusaders called the cave the "Holy of Holies" and venerated it as the site of the archangel's announcement of

John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

's birth. Modern scholarship indicates that the

of the Jewish Temple was probably on top of the Foundation Stone, not inside it.

Legends and old interpretations

In 1871, Jerusalem was visited by the explorer and Arabist Sir Richard Francis Burton. Burton's wife

Isabel Isabel is a female name of Iberian origin. Isabelle is a name that is similar, but it is of French origin. It originates as the medieval Spanish form of ''Elizabeth (given name), Elisabeth'' (ultimately Hebrew ''Elisheba''). Arising in the 12th c ...

later described their exploration of the Well of Souls as tourists:

Description

The entrance

The entrance to the cave is at the southeast angle of the Foundation Stone, beside the southeast pier of the Dome of the Rock shrine. Here a set of 16 new marble steps descend through a cut passage thought to date to Crusader times. On the way down, bedrock masses project in towards the stair; the one to the right is called "the tongue". (According to legend, the Stone answered ' Caliph 'Umar I' when he addressed it.)

The chamber

The cave chamber is roughly square, about on a side, and ranges from around high. Well_of_Souls

Inside the chamber are four prayer niches. As one descends, next to the staircase there are two (prayer niches): to the left (south) is one dedicated to Prophet Dawud (

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

), with a trefoil arch supported by miniature marble twisted-rope columns. To the right (southeast) is a shallower, but ornately decorated, prayer niche dedicated to the prophet

Suleiman Suleiman (; or dictionary.reference.comsuleiman/ref>) is the Arabic name of the Jewish and Quranic king and Islam, Islamic prophet Solomon (name), Solomon. Suleiman the Magnificent (1494–1566) was the longest-reigning sultan of the Ottoman E ...

(

Solomon Solomon (), also called Jedidiah, was the fourth monarch of the Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy), Kingdom of Israel and Judah, according to the Hebrew Bible. The successor of his father David, he is described as having been the penultimate ...

). This is certainly one of the oldest in the world, considered to date at least to the late 9th century, with some even suggesting that it dates back to the 7th century and to the time of Abd al-Malik, builder of the Dome of the Rock—making it the oldest in the world—but this is disputed. To the north is a small shrine dedicated to prophet Ibrahim (

) and to the northwest another one dedicated to

Khidr Al-Khidr (, ; also Romanized as ''al-Khadir, Khader, Khidr, Hidr, Khizr, Kezr, Kathir, Khazer, Khadr, Khedher, Khizir, Khizar, Khilr'') is a folk figure of Islam. He is described in Surah Al-Kahf, as a righteous servant of God possessing great w ...

Elijah Elijah ( ) or Elias was a prophet and miracle worker who lived in the northern kingdom of Israel during the reign of King Ahab (9th century BC), according to the Books of Kings in the Hebrew Bible. In 1 Kings 18, Elijah defended the worsh ...

. A depression in the floor of the cave elicits an echo, which may indicate a chamber beneath it. The chamber is supplied with electric lighting and fans.

The shaft

At the center of the ceiling is a shaft, in diameter, which penetrates up to the surface of the Stone above. It has been proposed that this is the 4,000-year-old remnant of a shaft tomb. Another theory is that it represents a Crusader "chimney" cut for ventilation to accommodate lighted shrine candles. Still others have tried to make a case that it was part of a drainage system for the blood of sacrifices from the Temple altar. There are no rope marks within the shaft, so it has been concluded that it was never used as a well, with the cave as a cistern. The ceiling of the cave appears natural, while the floor has been long ago paved with marble and carpeted over.

Literature

* The earliest reference to a "pierced rock" (the shaft in the cave's roof) may be that in the by the anonymous "Pilgrim of Bordeaux" who visited Jerusalem in 333 CE. * References to the "Well of Souls" under the Foundation Stone date at least to the 10th-century Persian writer Ibn al-Faqih who mentions it as an Islamic sacred site. * The 11th-century Persian writer and traveler Nasir-i Khusraw related the traditional story of the origin of the cave in his classic travelogue : * The 16th-century rabbi David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra said there was a cave under the

called the "Well of Souls".Radbaz, ''Sheeloth Ve-Teshuboth vol. 2, Siman 691'' cited in Zev Vilnay, ''Legends of Jerusalem'' (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1973), 26f.

Notes

References

External links

Cave inside the Dome of the Rock
at IslamicLandmarks.com {{Authority control Islamic mythology Temple Mount Ancient sites in Jerusalem Limestone caves Show caves in Israel Christianity in Jerusalem Crusade places Sacred caves