What is the history of the location of the temple for God that Solomon had built?

1. Location in the texts: Mount Moriah and the threshing floor

The Hebrew Bible identifies the spot: Solomon built the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, at the threshing floor that David bought from Araunah (Ornan) the Jebusite; later summaries and religious encyclopedias repeat that formulation and place the First Temple on what is now the Temple Mount ^{[1] [2] [6] [3]}.

2. The mainstream historical and scholarly consensus

Reference works and research summaries present Jerusalem’s Temple Mount as the customary and prevailing location for Solomon’s Temple. Britannica and research starters summarize the First Temple as built by Solomon in Jerusalem and completed in the 10th century–mid 10th century BCE (commonly dated to c. 957–966 BCE in these accounts), forming the religious center that later generations identified with the Temple Mount ^{[3] [5]}.

3. Archaeology: parallels but no excavation of the Mount

Archaeologists have found Iron Age temples elsewhere in the Levant with close architectural and decorative parallels to the biblical description (for example ’Ain Dara and other sites), and a few Israelite-period finds in the Jerusalem area that resemble temple features (Khirbet Qeiyafa, Tel Motza), but nothing of the First Temple itself has been uncovered because excavation on the Temple Mount is essentially off-limits, preventing direct archaeological confirmation ^{[4] [7]}.

4. Alternative proposals and contested readings

A minority of researchers and popular writers have argued for alternate sites (for instance, lower-lying areas south of the present Temple Mount or different ridges in the Ophel/City of David), sometimes citing building remains or reinterpreting textual clues. Answers in Genesis, specialized blogs and some independent investigators press these alternatives, but mainstream summaries and Jewish—and Muslim—tradition place the Temple on the Temple Mount itself ^{[8] [9] [10]}. Sources disagree on precise archaeological dating: while rabbinic chronology places the First Temple’s dates later (per Seder Olam Rabbah) and Josephus reports different regnal calculations, secular historians more commonly date construction to the 10th century BCE ^[7].

5. Why the Temple Mount hypothesis persists

Textual tradition, later religious practice, and early historical testimony converge on the Temple Mount location. The Mishnah and later rabbinic descriptions of the Temple Mount platform and measurements, the long-standing Jewish and Islamic identification of the same elevated platform as sacral, and the visible Herodian retaining walls around that platform have reinforced belief that the successive temples stood there ^{[11] [3] [6]}. Many travelers’ accounts and devotional mappings also assert the Dome of the Rock sits roughly above the ancient Holy of Holies, a continuity emphasized by multiple sources ^[11].

6. Limits of the evidence and the contested chronology

Direct physical evidence for Solomon’s Temple is lacking in part because modern archaeological work cannot excavate the Temple Mount area; therefore claims about exact footprint, dimensions and some chronological details remain dependent on textual description and comparative archaeology ^{[4] [5]}. Rabbinic sources and Josephus present chronologies that do not match secular archaeological reconstructions, producing competing dates for construction and destruction ^[7].

7. What archaeology has added: regional parallels and local finds

Although the Temple Mount itself is not excavated, recent finds in the Jerusalem environs have strengthened the plausibility that a monumental cult building existed in the Iron Age and that the biblical descriptions fit wider Levantine temple forms. Archaeologists point to the Tel Motza temple, Khirbet Qeiyafa shrine model, and Anatolian/Syrian parallels like ’Ain Dara as evidence that the biblical temple description resembles real Near Eastern temple architecture ^{[7] [4]}.

8. Bottom line for readers

Primary textual tradition, mainstream reference works and religious communities locate Solomon’s Temple on Mount Moriah / the Temple Mount in Jerusalem ^{[1] [2] [3]}. Archaeology supports the plausibility of such a temple in the Iron Age through parallels and nearby finds, but no excavation has produced the physical remains of Solomon’s building because investigation of the Temple Mount itself is effectively impossible ^{[4] [5]}. Claims for alternate locations exist but remain minority positions in the corpus of scholarly and traditional sources ^{[8] [9]}.

Limitations: available sources do not mention any newly excavated, directly attributable remains of Solomon’s Temple on the present Temple Mount platform; chronological disagreements between rabbinic and secular sources remain unresolved in current reporting ^{[7] [4]}.