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Prophet's Mosque

Prophet's Mosque

Photo: Muhammad Mahdi Karim · GFDL 1.2 · Wikimedia Commons

Location
Medina, Saudi Arabia
Client / Owner
—
Year
Completed 622
Access
Public
Typology
Spiritual
Style
Islamic

The Prophet's Mosque in Medina is the second-holiest site in Islam, after Masjid al-Haram in Mecca. Muhammad built it in 622 after arriving in Medina, and Umar and Uthman later enlarged and rebuilt it. Under the Umayyad caliph al-Walid I (705 to 715) it was greatly expanded and gained its first minarets. The Mamluk sultan Qaitbay rebuilt the Raisiyyah minaret between 1481 and 1486, and the Ottoman sultan Abdulmejid I began a major expansion in 1849.

The Green Dome, rebuilt in 1817 and painted green in 1837, rises over the Rawdah and the tombs of Muhammad, Abu Bakr and Umar. King Fahd's expansion, begun in 1985, added six minarets 341 feet (103.89 m) tall, bringing the total to ten, and 250 retractable umbrellas shading about 1.5 million square feet (143,000 sq m) of courtyards.

The mosque can hold 1,000,000 worshippers.

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