The Second Temple (Hebrew: בית־המקדש השני, romanized: Beit HaMikdash HaSheni, transl. 'Second House of the Sanctum'), also known in its later years as Herod's Temple, was the reconstructed Jewish holy temple that stood on the Temple Mount in the city of Jerusalem between c. 516 BCE and 70 CE. It replaced the First Temple (built at the same location during Solomon's reign over the United Kingdom of Israel) that had been destroyed in 587 BCE by the Neo-Babylonian Empire during its conquest of the Kingdom of Judah; the fallen Jewish kingdom was subsequently annexed as a Babylonian province and part of its populace was held captive in Babylon. Construction on the Second Temple began some time after the conquest of Babylon by the Achaemenid Persian Empire, following a proclamation by the Persian king Cyrus the Great that enabled the Jewish return to Zion. The completion of the Second Temple in the new Achaemenid province of Yehud marked the beginning of the Second Temple period in Jewish history.

According to the Bible, the Second Temple was originally a rather modest structure constructed by a number of Jewish returnees to the Levant from Babylon under the Achaemenid-appointed governor Zerubbabel. However, during the reign of Herod the Great over the Herodian Kingdom of Judea, it was completely refurbished and the original structure was totally overhauled into the large edifices and façades that are more recognized in modern recreated models. The Second Temple stood for approximately 585 years before its destruction in 70 CE by the Roman Empire as retaliation for an ongoing Jewish revolt.Jewish eschatology includes a belief that the Second Temple will be replaced by a future Third Temple in Jerusalem; some Eastern Orthodox Christians contend that the Third Temple already exists in every consecrated and canonical church through the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.