Synagogue on Temple MountRabbi Yosef Di’Trani, who visited Jerusalem during the 1590s, noted that there were locations on the southern and eastern sides of the Temple Mount where Jews could walk freely. But he ruled that Jews should, nonetheless, avoid going there because they were not ritually clean.

Source: F.M. Loewenberg. Middle East Quarterly. Summer 2013, pp. 37-48. http://www.meforum.org/3556/temple-mount