The Dome of the Rock was built under the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik. Its dedicatory inscription gives the year 72 in the Islamic calendar, or 691 to 692 CE, which most historians take as its completion. It stands in Jerusalem's Old City over a sacred rock linked to the Prophet Muhammad's Night Journey. Its octagonal plan was patterned after nearby Byzantine churches and palaces.
A dome about 66 feet (20 m) across rests on a circular drum, carried by four piers and twelve columns. Two arcades form inner and outer walkways around the rock, and each outer wall is about 197 feet (60 m) wide. The interior is covered in mosaic, faience and marble. In the 16th century Suleiman the Magnificent replaced the exterior mosaics with Ottoman tiles, and Italian-made copies replaced those in 1960 to 1962.
The dome was refitted with gold-covered plates in the 1960s. Since 1967 non-Muslims have had limited access.
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