Gallery
Description
Property Name: Dome of the Rock, Qubbat al-Sakhra (in Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa, Al-Haram Ash-Sharif)
Inventory No: 972-2-1
Date of infill of the inventory form: 2007-09-05
Country (State party): Palestine
Province: Al Quds/Jerusalem
Town: Old town
Geographic coordinates: 31° 46′ 40″ N
35° 14′ 6.53″ E
Historic Period: Umayyad
Year of Construction: 687-691/72 H
Style: Early Islamic
Original Use: Mosque
Current Use: Mosque
Architect: Unknown
Significance
Qubbet al-Sakhra, one of the earliest examples of the Islamic architecture, is the third holiest place for Muslims after Makka and Medina. It was constructed to protect the rock, where the Prophet Muhammad’s (Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) Al-Isra (Night Journey) took place. This Islamic cultural heritage also needs special attention because of a series of actions carried out by the Israeli occupation since 1948 in order to obliterate the identity of the Islamic civilization to the city of Jerusalem., Haram al-Sharif as well as being the landmark of the city. The structure with its double-shelled dome and mosaic decorations is a unique example of an investigation for a new architectural style of Islam.
Selection Criteria
ii. to exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design
iii. to bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared
vi. to be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance
State of Preservation
Qubbat al-Sakhra was last restored in 2016. The Islamic Waqf and The affairs of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Council of Jerusalem Awqaf supervised the completion of historic projects from the Hashemite Reconstruction of the Al- Aqsa Mosque / the Holy Haram. The restoration project relates to the restoration of mosaics and stucco decorations in the Dome of the Rock. The restoration and implementation work spanned over eight years from 2008 to June 2016 AD – Ramadan 1437 AH. It is seen that the decorations of the interior are being repaired by the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock Restoration Committee.
Another restoration was done in 1994. The work was mostly concerned about the roof of the structure. A new copper coating with its coating of pure gold was implemented, and the problems about the water were solved, thus stopping the infiltrations of water which, in the past, were one of the major causes of its deterioration. In the report of Unesco, September 1995 there are three issues about Qubbat al-Sakhra’s preservation state. The first issue is about the external marble cladding of the structure’s walls. The cladding told to be suffered over centuries from various types of damage, and particularly the penetration into the white marble slabs of rust from the iron hooks which held them in place. The second issue is the original paintwork on the stucco-work of the dome. It was mentioned that those paintworks had been painted over several occasions over the centuries, most recently when the monument was restored at the end of the 1950s. And the third issue was about the conditions of the mosaics decorating the inside of the monument which needed urgent intervention.
References
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