The Israel Antiquities Authority (AIA) announced on Wednesday that it had unearthed the remains of one of the oldest rural mosques in the world.

The ruins were discovered in the Negev desert in the south of the country, according to the AIA statement.

The mosque dates from the 7th or 8th century AD, i.e. the first centuries of Islam.

It was unearthed during excavations in the Bedouin town of Rahat, in the north of the Arabian Peninsula where the Muslim religion was born.

It includes "a square room and a wall facing Mecca", with a mihrab (prayer niche) in a semicircle facing south.

Workers from Israel's Antiquities Authority excavate a rare ancient mosque in the Bedouin town of Rahat, in the country's southern Negev desert.



According to officials, this discovery sheds light on the region's transition from Christianity to Islam.

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A better knowledge of the beginnings of Islam

"These unique architectural features show that the building was used as a mosque," the statement continued.

The place could probably accommodate a few dozen worshipers at a time.

Near the mosque, a luxurious building was also discovered, with remains of crockery and glass objects giving indications of the wealth of the inhabitants.

In 2019, already in Rahat, researchers had exhumed the remains of a rural mosque dating from the same period.

These Muslim vestiges among “the oldest in the world” allow us to learn more about “the introduction of a new religion – Islam – and of a new domination and culture in the region”.

The mosques unearthed in Rahat will be preserved in their current locations, either as historical monuments or as active places of prayer, the Israeli authorities added.

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