"al-Aqsa" redirects here. For other uses, see al-Aqsa (disambiguation).
Al-Aqsa Mosque
Masjid al-Aqsa

Al-Aqsa Mosque is located in Jerusalem Al-Aqsa MosqueAl-Aqsa Mosque
Location within the Old City of Jerusalem
Coordinates: 31.77617°N 35.23583°ECoordinates: 31.77617°N 35.23583°E
Location Old City of Jerusalem
Established 705 CE
Branch/tradition Islam
Administration Jerusalem Islamic Waqf
Leadership Imam(s):
Muhammad Ahmad Hussein
Architectural information
Style Early Islamic, Mamluk
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[1]
Al-Aqsa Mosque (Arabic: المسجد الاقصى‎ al-Masjid al-Aqṣā, IPA: [ʔælˈmæsdʒɪd ælˈʔɑqsˤɑ] ( listen), “the Farthest Mosque”), also known as Al-Aqsa and Bayt al-Muqaddas, is the third holiest site in Islam and is located in the Old City of Jerusalem. The site on which the silver domed mosque sits, along with the Dome of the Rock, is referred to as al-Haram ash-Sharif ("the Noble Sanctuary"),[2] 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. After an earthquake in 746, the mosque was completely destroyed and rebuilt by the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur in 754, and again rebuilt by his successor al-Mahdi 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.

During the periodic renovations undertaken, the various ruling dynasties of the Islamic Caliphate constructed additions to the mosque and its precincts, such as its dome, facade, its minbar, minarets and the interior structure. When the Crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099, they used the mosque as a palace and the Dome of the Rock as a church, but its function as a mosque was restored after its recapture by Saladin in 1187. More renovations, repairs and additions were undertaken in the later centuries by the Ayyubids, Mamluks, Ottomans, the Supreme Muslim Council, and Jordan. Today, the Old City is under Israeli control, but the mosque remains under the administration of the Jordanian/Palestinian-led Islamic Waqf.