The world's oldest surviving Islamic monument was built to rival Christian architecture in Jerusalem.

Countries & Cities · Published 29 September 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Commissioned by the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik in 691 CE, the Dome of the Rock is an octagonal masterpiece of early Islamic design. While it stands as a unique cultural document, its history is a layered saga of earthquakes, crusades, and centuries of architectural restoration by competing empires.

The Dome of the Rock was constructed during the Second Fitna, a period of intense conflict for the Umayyad Caliphate. Scholars debate the Caliph's primary motivation: some suggest it was a victory monument designed to assert the uniqueness of Islam within a landscape dominated by older Abrahamic faiths, while others argue it was intended to compete with the grandeur of the nearby Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Its octagonal plan and dome structure were heavily influenced by Byzantine traditions, with measurements that closely mirror those of the Holy Sepulchre.

The structure has endured significant physical transformations over 1,300 years. Earthquakes in 808, 846, 1015, 1033, 1447, and 1927 necessitated repeated repairs. During the Crusader occupation, the site was converted into a church and served as the headquarters for the Knights Templar, who identified it as the site of Solomon's Temple. Following Saladin's recapture of Jerusalem in 1187, the building was reconsecrated as a Muslim shrine, with the cross replaced by a crescent and new Qur'anic inscriptions added in the then-emerging cursive Arabic script.

The exterior appearance has evolved dramatically. Originally adorned with Umayyad mosaics, the walls were covered in Ottoman-style tiles during the 16th-century renovations commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent. In the modern era, the dome's aesthetic has been redefined by gold; the current gold-plated exterior was achieved in 1995 using 80 kilograms of gold, funded by a donation from King Hussein of Jordan. Today, the site remains a focal point of religious and political significance, managed by the Ministry of Awqaf in Amman under a complex Status Quo arrangement.

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