Most Holy Place
Most Holy Place is a structure mentioned in both the Old and New Testaments, located in the region of Judea in modern-day Israel. Known today as Mount Moriah. It appears across 24 verses in Scripture.
Biblical History
The Most Holy Place within the Jerusalem Temple was the innermost sanctum of both Solomon's Temple and the Second Temple, situated on Mount Moriah. Solomon constructed it as a perfect cube measuring twenty cubits in each dimension (1 Kings 6:16-20), overlaid entirely with pure gold. Two enormous cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits tall, stood within, their outstretched wings spanning the full width of the room (1 Kings 6:23-28). The Ark of the Covenant was placed beneath these cherubim. When the glory of the Lord filled the Temple at its dedication, Solomon declared that God had chosen to dwell in thick darkness (1 Kings 8:10-12). The veil separating this chamber from the Holy Place was torn from top to bottom at the moment of Christ's crucifixion (Matthew 27:51), signifying that access to God's presence was now open to all believers. The author of Hebrews extensively interprets this space as a type of heaven itself, entered once for all by Christ through His own blood (Hebrews 9:11-12).
Archaeological & Historical Notes
The Most Holy Place of Solomon's Temple stood on the Temple Mount (Mount Moriah) in Jerusalem, now the site of the Dome of the Rock. Due to the extreme religious and political sensitivity of the Temple Mount, no archaeological excavation has ever been conducted on the platform itself. The Foundation Stone (es-Sakhra) beneath the Dome of the Rock is traditionally identified as the location where the Ark of the Covenant rested. Excavations around the periphery of the Temple Mount, particularly by Benjamin Mazar and Eilat Mazar along the southern wall, have uncovered Herodian-period structures and artifacts consistent with Temple operations, but direct evidence of the inner sanctuary remains inaccessible.
Verse Appearances (24)
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- OpenBible.info (n.d.) Bible Geocoding. Available at: https://www.openbible.info/geo/. [CC BY 4.0]
- Bagnall, R. et al. (eds.) (n.d.) Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places. Available at: https://pleiades.stoa.org. [CC BY 3.0]
- Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
- Lawrence, D. et al. (2025) Villages to Empires: a settlement dataset for the Southern Levant. doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732. [CC BY 4.0]
- Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]