Mosque at Rahat
The mosque at Rahat was a mosque from the 7th or 8th century in the Negev desert near what is now the Bedouin city of Rahat . It is located in the south of Israel about 100 kilometers southwest of Jerusalem . The remains of the mosque were discovered in 2019 before the construction of a new neighborhood by Rahat. According to archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority, it is one of the oldest mosques of Islam in Israel today.
An excavation by Israeli archaeologists revealed that the mosque had a rectangular floor plan and had a round prayer niche . The stone building faced Mecca and was open at the top. According to the archaeologists, it was a local, rural mosque. A mosque from this early period of Islam is extremely rare in the Middle East . So far, no comparable building has been discovered in the area. The mosque dates back to the time after the Arab conquest of what is now Israel in 636.
During the excavation, archaeologists also uncovered a 6th century farm from the Byzantine era and a small 7th century settlement.
Web links
- Photo of the exposed floor plan of the mosque on n-tv on July 18, 2019
- Archaeologists find a 1200-year-old mosque in Der Spiegel on July 19, 2019
- Archaeologists find remains of an early mosque at Israelnetz on July 19, 2019
- Excavations in Israel: Historical mosque in Negev discovered video on the evening news on July 20, 2019 (01:56 minutes)
Individual evidence
- ↑ One of the oldest mosques in the world is located in Israel on Welt Online from July 18, 2019