Israeli archaeologists said Thursday they had unearthed the remains of a rare ancient rural mosque from the seventh and eighth centuries AD in the country’s south.
The remains were discovered during preparations to constructa new building in the Bedouin town of Rahat, the Israel Antiquities Authoritysaid. It said the remains were of an open-air rectangular mosque with a mihrab,or prayer niche, facing Mecca.
The authority called it one of the earliest known ruralmosques worldwide.
“From this period there are large known mosques inJerusalem and in Mecca, but here we have evidence of an ancient house ofprayer, which seems to have served the farmers who lived in the area,” theauthority said in a statement from the excavations’ directors, Jon Seligman andShaharZur.
It said no similar building had been found in the area whereit was discovered. The authority was “examining possible ways in whichthis special finding can be integrated into the new neighbourhood,” itsaid.Other finds in the area were a small settlementfrom the early Islamic period, the authority said. The Muslim conquest of theregion occurred in the first half of the seventh century.