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Like a moving target, past researchers have shifted the precise location of the original Temple Mount. Shown here are a dozen theories, culminating in author Leen Ritmeyer’s proposal. Shown in black are the Temple Mount and the Muslim platform within it as they appear today; the octagonal shape is the Dome of the Rock with the es-Sakhra rock, the highest point of the Mount, at its center. Yellow represents the location of the original Temple Mount platform from the time of the First Temple as put forth by the various theorists; the dashed T-shape indicates where within the platform they placed the Temple itself. Ritmeyer, noting that the Mishnah says the Temple Mount’s largest open space “was at the south, second largest, at the east, third largest, at the north, and least, at the west” locates the Temple atop es-Sakhra, where the Dome of the Rock is today.