Marwani Mosque in Jerusalem - Palestine
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Marwani Mosque in Jerusalem - Palestine
Solomon's Stables (Hebrew: אורוות שלמה) or Marwani Prayer Hall (Arabic: المصلى المرواني) is an underground vaulted space now used as a Muslim prayer hall, some 600 square yards (500 square metres) in area, at the bottom of stairs which lead down from the al-Aqsa Mosque, under the Temple Mount, to the base of the southern wall of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Solomon's Stables are located under the southeastern corner of the Temple Mount, 12½ metres below the courtyard and feature twelve rows of pillars and arches.
The structure is most widely said to have been built by King Herod as part of his extension of the platform of the Temple Mount southward onto the ophel. The Herodian engineers constructed the enormous platform as a series of vaulted arches in order to reduce pressure on the retaining walls. These vaults, "supported by eighty-eight pillars resting on massive Herodian blocks and divided into twelve rows of galleries", were originally storage areas of the Second Temple. A great deal of the original interior survives in the area of the Herodian staircases, although not in the area now renovated for use as a mosque. Visitors are rarely permitted to enter the areas with Herodian finishes.
In 1996, the waqf built a modern prayer hall there, with a capacity for 7,000 worshippers. In 1997, the waqf began digging up the southeastern area of the Temple Mount, drawing criticism from archaeologists, who said that archaeological finds were being damaged in the process and the excavations weakened the stability of the Southern Wall. The excavations are thought to have been responsible for creating a large, visible bulge in the Southern Wall that threatened the structural integrity of the Temple Mount, necessitating major repairs. The repairs have been called "unsightly", an "eyesore", and a "terrible job" because they appear as a large, bright, white patch of smooth stones in a golden tan wall of rusticated ashlar.;
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Address:المصلى المرواني
Map for المصلى المرواني
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