A qibla musharriqa for the First al-Aqsà Mosque? A new stratigraphic, planimetric, and chronological reading of Hamilton’s excavation, and some considerations on the introduction of the concave mihrab
This paper reconstructs an alternative planimetric and structural history of al-Aqsa mosque in the pre-crusader period and reassesses the chronology. In particular, it proposes reading the plan of the first Aqsa, which merged from Hamilton’s excavations, as oriented towards the east rather than the south, thus having an astronomical orientation like other 7th-century and early 8th-century mosques.