Two extraordinary buildings now dominated Jerusalem’s skyline. The Dome of the Rock’s huge golden roof shimmered like a fireball, visible for miles around. (“As soon as the beams of the sun strike the cupola and the drum radiates the light, then indeed is this marvelous to behold,” recorded one Muslim traveler and geographer of the tenth century.)29 At the other end of the Temple Mount complex was another imposing building: al-Aqsa Mosque, most recently refashioned in the 1030s.
