Pre-construction The mosque is located on the southern part of the Temple Mount or Haram al-Sharif, an enclosure expanded by King
Herod the Great beginning in 20 BCE during his reconstruction of the
Second Jewish Temple. The mosque resides on an artificial platform that is supported by arches constructed by Herod's engineers to overcome the difficult topographic conditions resulting from the southward expansion of the enclosure into the
Tyropoeon and
Kidron valleys. During the late
Second Temple period, the present site of the mosque was occupied by the
Royal Stoa, a
basilica running the southern wall of the enclosure. Analysis of the wooden beams and panels removed from the mosque during renovations in the 1930s shows they are made from
Lebanese cedar and
cypress. Radiocarbon dating gave a large range of ages, some as old as the 9th century BCE, showing that some of the wood had previously been used in older buildings. However, reexamination of the same beams in the 2010s gave dates in the Byzantine period. During his excavations in the 1930s,
Robert Hamilton uncovered portions of a multicolor mosaic floor with geometric patterns, but did not publish them. The date of the mosaic is disputed:
Zachi Dvira considers that they are from the pre-Islamic Byzantine period, while Baruch, Reich and Sandhaus favor a much later
Umayyad origin on account of their similarity to a mosaic from an Umayyad palace excavated adjacent to the Temple Mount's southern wall. Moreover, the mosaic designs were common in Islamic, Jewish and Christian buildings from the 2nd to the 8th century. the al-Aqsa Mosque was used as a royal palace and also as a stable for horses. In 1119, the Crusader king accommodated the headquarters of the
Knights Templar next to his palace within the building. During this period, the mosque underwent some structural changes, including the expansion of its northern porch, and the addition of an
apse and a dividing wall. A new cloister and church were also built at the site, along with various other structures. The Templars constructed vaulted western and eastern annexes to the building; the western currently serves as the women's mosque and the eastern as the
Islamic Museum. This restoration is commemorated by an inscription in Arabic
naskhi script executed in a gilded glass mosaic panel above the
mihrab. Saladin's predecessor—the
Zengid sultan
Nur al-Din—had also commissioned the construction of a new
minbar or "pulpit" made of
ivory and wood in 1168–69, which was completed after his death.
Nur ad-Din's minbar was added to the mosque in November 1187 by Saladin, placed next to the
mihrab. The Ayyubid sultan of Damascus,
al-Mu'azzam, built the northern porch of the mosque with three gates in 1218. In 1345, the
Mamluk sultan
al-Kamil Sha'ban added two naves and two gates to the mosque's eastern side. He also rebuilt the southern wall of Al-Aqsa, while
Qaitbay has ordered the lead roof to be restored. After the
Ottomans assumed power in 1517, they did not undertake any major renovations or repairs to the mosque. They made architectural contributions elsewhere on the Haram, including building the
Fountain of Qasim Pasha (1527) and three free-standing domes—the most notable being the
Dome of the Prophet built in 1538, and restoring the
Pool of Raranj. These constructions were commissioned by the Ottoman governors of Jerusalem, rather than the
sultans, whose contributions were limited to additions to the existing minarets. The mosque was damaged by the
Galilee earthquake of 1837. Severe damage was caused by the
1927 Jericho earthquake earthquake. Repairs were undertaken in 1938 and 1942. On 20 July 1951,
King Abdullah I was shot three times by a Palestinian gunman as he entered the mosque, killing him. His grandson
Prince Hussein, was at his side and was also hit, though a medal he was wearing on his chest deflected the bullet. The site fell under Israeli control on 7 June 1967, during the
Six Day War. On 21 August 1969,
a fire was started by a visitor from Australia named
Denis Michael Rohan, an
evangelical Christian who hoped that by burning down al-Aqsa Mosque he would hasten the
Second Coming of Jesus. In response to the incident, a summit of Islamic countries was held in
Rabat that same year, hosted by
Faisal of Saudi Arabia, the then king of
Saudi Arabia. The al-Aqsa fire is regarded as one of the catalysts for the formation of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC, now the
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) in 1972. Following the fire, the dome was reconstructed in concrete and covered with
anodized aluminium, instead of the original ribbed lead enamel work sheeting. In 1983, the aluminium outer covering was replaced with lead to match the original design by az-Zahir. In the 1980s, Ben Shoshan and
Yehuda Etzion, both members of the
Gush Emunim Underground, plotted to blow up the al-Aqsa mosque and the
Dome of the Rock. Etzion believed that blowing up the two mosques would cause a spiritual awakening in Israel, and would solve all the problems of the Jewish people. They also hoped the
Third Temple of Jerusalem would be built on the location of the mosque.
21st century On 5 November 2014, Israeli police entered Al-Aqsa for the first time since capturing Jerusalem in 1967, said Sheikh Azzam Al-Khatib, director of the Islamic Waqf. Previous media reports of 'storming Al-Aqsa' referred to the Haram al-Sharif compound rather than the Al-Aqsa mosque itself. During the
2026 Iran war, the mosque was closed for a period of 40 days by the Israeli authorities, marking the first time the mosque was closed on the
Eid prayers since 1967. An estimated 100,000 people attended the Friday prayer the day after the mosque was re-opened. ==Architecture==