Umayyad Streets Leading to the Temple Mount/al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf Gates in Jerusalem: Evidence ofUrban Planning, Control and Ideology

At the beginning of the eighth century CE, the Umayyad rulers initiated the construction of an extensive governmental complex at the foot of the Temple Mount/al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf, comprising at least four impressive monumental buildings. The present study shifts the focus from the architecture of these structures to the street system of the complex, arguing that it functioned not merely as infrastructure but as a sophisticated mechanism of movement and control. These streets, laid out along carefully planned axes and constructed atop artificial fills, employed wide, controlled gates and specific lines of sight to dictate a continuous experiential sequence. Through the incorporation of broad thresholds, towers, narrow corridors and hypostyle halls, the act of entering the complex and moving within it was transformed into a symbolic ritual that echoed and reinforced imperial authority. The streets within the complex, and those connecting it to its two focal points—the Temple Mount/al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf and the eastern cardo—attest to an Umayyad effort to consolidate the administrative complex as an expression of political and religious legitimacy.