The Haram is a quadrangle of about 35 acres in area. The angles at the south-west and north-east corners are right angles, and the south-east angle is 92° 30´. The true bearing of the east wall is 352° 30´ (general direction). The length of the south wall is 922 feet on the level of the interior. The west wall is 1601 feet long; the east wall, 1530 feet. The northern boundary for 350 feet is formed by a scarp of rock 30 feet high, projecting at the north-west of the Haram. The modern gateways giving entrance into the interior are eleven in number: three on the north and eight on the west. Of the ancient gateways there were two on the south, now called the Double and Triple Gates; while east of the latter is the mediæval entrance, known as the Single Gate, beneath which Colonel Warren discovered a passage. On the east wall is the Golden Gate, now closed; and two small posterns in the modern masonry are found south of this portal. On the west wall the Prophet’s Gateway (sometimes called Barclay’s Gate) is recognised as the southern of the two Parbar (or Suburban) Gates, mentioned in the Talmud; while the Northern Suburban Gate appears to have been converted into a tank, and lies immediately west of the Dome of the Rock. (This is Tank No. 30, Ordnance Survey.) [Illustration: PLAN OF THE NOBLE SANCTUARY SHEWING THE RESULTS OF THE RESEARCHES OF Col. =C. W. Wilson R.E.= &c. Col. =C. Warren R.E.= _By favour of the Palestine Exploration Fund._] The raised platform in the middle of the Haram enclosure has an area of about 5 acres, and is an irregular quadrangle. The Kubbet es-Sakhrah, or Dome of the Rock, on this platform, covers the sacred rock, which rises 5 feet above the floor of the building, the crest being at the level 2440 feet above the Mediterranean. The Dome of the Chain is immediately to the east of the Kubbet es-Sakhrah. The Jami’a el-Aksa, or “distant mosque” (that is, distant from Mecca), is on the south, reaching to the outer wall. The whole enclosure of the Haram is called by Moslem writers Masjid el Aksa, “praying-place of the Aksa.” Entering by the gate of the Cotton Bazaar we stand within the temple courts. Before us are the steps which lead up to the platform where shoes must be removed; for while the outer court, like the old court of the Gentiles, is a promenade, the paved marble platform is a sacred enclosure, not to be trodden except barefoot. Over the outer arcade of the Dome of the Rock runs the great Cufic inscription, giving the date of the erection of the building in 688 A.D. “The Dome of the Rock” (says Conder) “belongs to that obscure period of Saracenic art when the Arabs had not as yet created an architectural style of their own, and when they were in the habit of employing Byzantine architects to build their mosques.”