Al-Aqsa mosque

Al-Aqsa Mosque
المسجد الاقصى‎ Masjid al-‘Aqṣā
Location within the Old City of Jerusalem
Basic information
Location	Old City of Jerusalem
Geographic coordinates	31°46′34″N 35°14′09″E / 31.77617°N 35.23583°E / 31.77617; 35.23583Coordinates: 31°46′34″N 35°14′09″E / 31.77617°N 35.23583°E / 31.77617; 35.23583
Affiliation	Islam
Administration	Jerusalem Islamic Waqf
Leadership	Imam(s): Muhammad Ahmad Hussein
Architectural description
Architectural type	Mosque
Architectural style	Early Islamic, Mamluk
Date established	705 CE
Specifications
Direction of façade	north-northwest
Capacity	5,000+
Dome(s)	2 large + tens of smaller ones
Minaret(s)	4
Minaret height	37 meters (121 ft) (tallest)
Materials	Limestone (external walls, minaret, facade) stalactite (minaret), Gold, lead and stone (domes), white marble (interior columns) and mosaic

Al-Aqsa Mosque (Arabic: المسجد الاقصى‎‎ Al-Masjid al-‘Aqṣā, IPA: [ʔælˈmæsdʒɪd ælˈʔɑqsˤɑ], "the Farthest Mosque"), also known as Al-Aqsa and Bayt al-Muqaddas, is the third holiest site in Sunni Islam and is located in the Old City of Jerusalem. Whilst the entire site on which the silver-domed mosque sits, along with the Dome of the Rock, seventeen gates, and four minarets, was itself historically known as the Al-Aqsa Mosque, today a narrower definition prevails, and the wider compound is usually referred to as al-Haram ash-Sharif ("the Noble Sanctuary"), or the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism. Muslims believe that Muhammad was transported from the Sacred Mosque in Mecca to al-Aqsa during the Night Journey. Islamic tradition holds that Muhammad led prayers towards this site until the seventeenth month after the emigration, when God directed him to turn towards the Kaaba.

The mosque was originally a small prayer house built by the Rashidun caliph Umar, but was rebuilt and expanded by the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik and finished by his son al-Walid in 705 CE. The mosque was completely destroyed by an earthquake in 746 and rebuilt by the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur in 754. His successor al-Mahdi rebuilt it again in 780. Another earthquake destroyed most of al-Aqsa in 1033, but two years later the Fatimid caliph Ali az-Zahir built another mosque which has stood to the present day.