The Well of Souls (Arabic: بئر الأرواح, romanized: Biʾr al-Arwaḥ; sometimes translated as Pit of Souls, Cave of Spirits, or Well of Spirits) is a cave that is partly natural and partly man-made. It lies within the Foundation Stone (called the Noble Rock in Islam), beneath the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount (Haram al‑Sharif) in Jerusalem. During the Crusader period, Christians referred to it as the “Holy of Holies,” a title for the inner sanctum of the ancient Jewish Temple, which modern scholarship places on top of the Foundation Stone rather than within it.
The name “Well of Souls” comes from a medieval Islamic tradition that the spirits of the dead can be heard here as they await Judgment Day.
The Well of Souls sits beneath the exposed bedrock of the Foundation Stone, directly under the Dome of the Rock. The Dome of the Rock occupies the site of the destroyed Second Jewish Temple, built around 516 BCE to replace Solomon’s Temple and destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. In classical Jewish sources, the Foundation Stone is identified as the starting point of creation and as the place where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac.
The Foundation Stone and its cave entered Christian tradition after the Crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099. They converted the Dome of the Rock into a church, calling it in Latin Templum Domini (Temple of the Lord), and made substantial alterations to the site. These included cutting away parts of the rock to form stairways, paving the Stone with marble slabs, enlarging the main cave entrance, and likely creating the vertical shaft that rises from the center of the chamber. The Crusaders called the cave the “Holy of Holies” and venerated it as the place of the archangel’s announcement of John the Baptist’s birth. Modern research indicates that the Holy of Holies of the Jewish Temple stood above the Foundation Stone rather than within the cave.