The ruins of the mosque, believed to be more than 1,200 years old, were discovered during construction work on a new neighborhood in the Bedouin city of Rahat, the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) said in a statement. The mosque, located in the Negev Desert, contained a square room and a wall facing Mecca, with a semicircular niche in this wall pointing south, the IAA said. Aerial view of the newly discovered ancient mosque in the Bedouin city of Rahat. Photo: Menahem Kahana / AFP / Getty Images “These unique architectural features indicate that the building was used as a mosque,” the authority said, noting that it probably housed a few dozen worshipers at a time. A short distance from the mosque, a “luxury building” was also discovered, with remnants of tableware and glassware showing the wealth of its inhabitants, the IAA said. Three years ago, authorities discovered another mosque near the same time as the seventh to eighth centuries AD, calling the two Islamic places of worship “among the first known in the world.” Subscribe to the First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7 p.m. BST Mosques, estates and other nearby houses shed light on “the historic process that took place in the northern Negev with the introduction of a new religion – the religion of Islam and a new power and culture in the region,” the IAA said. “These were gradually established, inheriting the previous Byzantine government and the Christian religion that had dominated the earth for hundreds of years.” The Muslim conquest of the region occurred in the first half of the seventh century. The IAA said the mosques found in Rahat would be preserved at their current locations, either as historical monuments or as active places of worship.
