Three structures dominate the platform, and each has its own building history layered over what came before.
What stands there
The Dome of the Rock, completed around 691 CE under the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik, is a shrine rather than a mosque, built over a bedrock outcrop associated in Islamic tradition with the Prophet Muhammad's night journey and ascension, and in Jewish tradition with the site of the biblical binding of Isaac. The al-Aqsa Mosque, the working congregational mosque on the southern end of the platform, has been rebuilt and expanded repeatedly after earthquake damage across the centuries. The Western Wall, on the platform's western flank, is a retaining wall from Herod's first century BCE expansion of the earlier Second Temple compound, and is Judaism's holiest accessible prayer site.
Who administers what
An Islamic religious trust, the Waqf, administers the platform's structures and day to day access under a long-standing arrangement, while Israeli police control the perimeter and security. Non-Muslim visitors are permitted onto the platform during restricted hours but are not permitted to pray there, a rule enforced by both authorities though contested by some visitors.
Damage and repair
A 1969 arson attack by an Australian visitor badly damaged al-Aqsa's pulpit and roof; restoration followed with funding from multiple Muslim countries. The platform remains one of the most closely watched religious sites on earth, its physical fabric inseparable from the authority disputes that surround it.