Al-Aqsa Mosque

Al-Aqsa Mosque stands at the southern end of the large walled platform in Jerusalem's Old City known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, and to Jews as the Temple Mount. The present building goes back to the Umayyad period, around 705, and historians differ on whether Caliph Abd al-Malik or his son al-Walid I began it.

In Islamic tradition the site is linked with the Night Journey of the Prophet Muhammad, and Al-Aqsa was the first direction of prayer before Mecca. It is regarded as the third holiest site in Islam. Earthquakes in 746 and 1033 badly damaged the mosque, and it was rebuilt by the Abbasids and then by the Fatimid caliph al-Zahir, whose 11th-century plan largely survives.

After the Crusaders took Jerusalem in 1099 the building was used as a royal palace and then as the headquarters of the Knights Templar. Saladin restored it as a mosque in 1187 and installed a carved wooden minbar sent from Aleppo. In 1969 an arson attack destroyed that minbar and the south-eastern part of the building. The dome was restored, and a faithful replica of Saladin's minbar was installed in 2007.

The mosque has a long prayer hall with rows of columns and a silver-grey lead-covered dome above the area in front of the mihrab, and it can hold more than 5,000 worshippers. It is administered by the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, which is linked to the Jordanian government.

Access to the compound is controlled and can change at short notice. Non-Muslim visitors may enter the platform only through the Mughrabi Gate during limited morning and early afternoon hours outside Muslim prayer times, and since 2000 the mosque buildings have not been open to them. Modest dress covering arms and legs is required.

How big is the mosque, and what is inside?

The Al-Aqsa Mosque building measures about 83 metres long and 56 metres wide, a footprint of roughly 0.46 hectares, on a compound of about 14.4 hectares. Inside, 45 columns hold up the roof, 33 of white marble and 12 of stone, and the columns under the dome carry Corinthian capitals of Italian white marble. Light enters through 121 stained glass windows from the Abbasid and Fatimid periods.

The building has been repaired many times. The northern porch with its three gates was added in 1218, and in 1345 al-Kamil Sha'ban added two naves and two gates on the east side. The 1927 Jericho earthquake and a 1937 tremor brought down part of the roof, and repairs in 1938 and 1942 used Carrara marble columns donated by Benito Mussolini. After the 1969 fire the dome was rebuilt in concrete, covered first with aluminium and in 1983 with lead sheeting, and its 14th-century interior paintings were reconstructed.

On 20 July 1951 King Abdullah I of Jordan was shot dead by a Palestinian gunman as he entered the mosque. His grandson, the future King Hussein, was also hit, but a medal on his chest deflected the bullet. The Islamic Museum now occupies the eastern vaulted annex built by the Templars, and the western annex serves as the women's mosque.