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Dome of al-Aqsa

The present-day dome of Masjid al-Aqsa (قبة المسجد الأقصى) was built by az-Zahir and consists of wood plated with lead enamelwork. Nothing remains of the original dome built by Abd al-Malik.

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Home > Middle East > Israel/Palestine > Jerusalem > Temple Mount > al-Aqsa > Dome

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Dome of al-Aqsa is the lead sheeted dome over al-Aqsa mosque. It is one of the several domes on Haram al-Sharif.

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In 1969, the dome was reconstructed in concrete and covered with anodized aluminum, instead of the original ribbed lead enamel work sheeting. In 1983, the aluminum outer covering was replaced with lead to match the original design by az-Zahir. The program of this extensive conservation began with the damaged dome and its paintings.

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The interior of the dome is painted with 14th-century-era decorations. Beneath the dome is the Al-Qibli Chapel (Arabic: المصلى القبلي‎ al-Musalla al-Qibli); also known as al-Jami' al-Qibli (الجامع القِبْلي)‎, a Muslim prayer hall, located in the southern part of the mosque. al-Aqsa's dome is one of the few domes to be built in front of the mihrab during the Umayyad and Abbasid periods, the others being the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus (715) and the Great Mosque of Sousse (850).

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A great portion of the mosque is covered with whitewash, but the drum of the dome and the walls immediately beneath it are decorated with mosaics and marble. The 14th-century painted decorations of the dome interior, thought to be irreparably lost, were brought to light and completely reconstructed using the trateggio technique, a method that uses fine vertical lines to distinguish reconstructed areas from original ones.

References

Aqsa Mosque Restoration. (n.d.). Retrieved May 28, 2019, from http://www.archnet.org/sites/354
Aga Khan Trust for Culture
Al-Ratrout, H. F. (2004). The architectural development of al-Aqsa Mosque in Islamic Jerusalem in the early Islamic period: Sacred architecture in the shape of the Holy. Dundee: Al-Maktoum Institute Academic Press.
Patel, I. A. (2006). Virtues of Jerusalem: An Islamic perspective = Faḍāʼil al-Quds. Leicester: Al-Aqsa.
Boehm, B. D., & Holcomb, M. (2016). Jerusalem, 1000-1400: Every people under heaven. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.