This page is subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Most modern scholars agree that the First Temple existed on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem by the time of the Babylonian siege, and there is significant debate among scholars over the date of its construction and the identity of its builder.
The Hebrew Bible, specifically within the Book of Kings , includes a detailed narrative about the construction's ordering by Solomon, the penultimate ruler of the United Kingdom of Israel. It further credits Solomon as the placer of the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies , a windowless inner sanctum within the structure.
Previously, many scholars accepted the biblical narrative of the First Temple's construction by Solomon as authentic. During the s, skeptical approaches to the biblical text as well as the archaeological record led some scholars to doubt whether there was any Temple in Jerusalem constructed as early as the 10th century BCE.
Nineteenth and early-twentieth century excavations around the Temple Mount did not identify "even a trace" of the complex. Archeologist Israel Finkelstein writes that the exact location of the Temple is unknown.
It is believed to have been situated upon the hill that forms the site of the Second Temple and present-day Temple Mount , where the Dome of the Rock is situated. The site was originally a threshing floor David had purchased from Araunah the Jebusite 2 Samuel β25 ; 2 Chronicles Schmid and Rupprecht are of the view that the site of the temple used to be a Jebusite shrine that Solomon chose in an attempt to unify the Jebusites and Israelites.
