Masjid Al-Aqsa
— the silver dome that holds the third direction of prayer.
Not only on a wall.
“The silver-domed congregational mosque at the south end of the Haram al-Sharif, the third holiest site in Islam and a place of prayer for more than thirteen centuries. The plaza around it is old limestone, scuffed pale by feet and rain. The light off the dome at the end of the day is the colour the cypresses have spent the morning gathering. Voices carry low across the courtyard at maghrib. from the studio
Masjid Al-Aqsa, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Masjid al-Aqsa stands at the southern end of the Haram al-Sharif, the elevated thirty-five-acre plaza in the south-east corner of the Old City of Jerusalem. The congregational mosque was first built in timber by the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik and completed in stone around 705 CE under his son al-Walid I. It is the third holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina, and was the first qibla, the original direction of Muslim prayer. The Old City of Jerusalem and its walls were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981.
The building has been rebuilt many times over thirteen centuries. The 749 and 1033 earthquakes brought it down twice; the Crusaders held it from 1099 until Saladin returned it to Muslim worship in 1187. The lead-covered silver dome dates to the twentieth century. The pale Jerusalem limestone of the courtyard and the surrounding walls catches the late light and holds it. The mihrab inside is medieval and modest; the building is sized for congregation, not for spectacle.
The Haram al-Sharif is administered by the Jordanian-funded Jerusalem Waqf. Entry to the mosque interior is restricted to Muslims; non-Muslim visitors may enter the wider plaza through the Moroccan Gate during set hours when access is open. Hours are subject to closure and to the political situation. The compound sits a short walk from the Western Wall, the Damascus Gate, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, all within the walled Old City.