Architecture of Palestine

The Palestinian townhouse shared in the same basic conceptions regarding the arrangement of living space and apartment types commonly seen throughout the Eastern Mediterranean.

The rich diversity and underlying unity of the architectural culture of this wider region stretching from the Balkans to North Africa was a function of the exchange fostered by the caravans of the trade routes, and the extension of Ottoman rule over most of this area, beginning in the early 16th century through until the end of World War I.

[1] Archaeological artifacts imparting information as to the nature of monumental construction, such as city walls, palaces, tomb and cult centers, in ancient Palestine are abundant.

[2] Cautioning against the conclusiveness of such comparisons, H. Keith Beebe writes that, "Arab houses are structured with regard to specific social customs and economic conditions, different from those of ancient Palestine.

Roofs were normally made of wooden supports upon which woven reed mats or brush were laid atop of which were added layers of clay mortar, rolled smooth to make an impermeable surface.

[3] The relatively high number of domus structures dated to the late Hellenistic and Roman periods reveal the extent of Greco-Roman influence on domestic architecture in Palestine at that time.

One notable exception is evidence of a pre-4th century CE structure that was found under the mosaics of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

Dedicated in 692 CE, the structure was built over the rock where Islamic tradition holds Abraham acceded to God's request that he sacrifice his son.

The Al-Aqsa mosque, built shortly thereafter, was reconstructed many times since with its form today deriving from a renovation carried out during the Crusader period in Palestine.

[7] The White Mosque was built in that city by the caliph Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik in 715–717 and was completed by his successor Umar II by 720.

[10] One of the earliest Umayyad palaces was known as Al-Sinnabra and served as a winter resort to Mu'awiya, Marwan I, and other caliphs in Umayyad-era Palestine (c. 650–704 CE).

[11][12] The ruins of al-Sinnabra were initially misidentified as belonging to the Byzantine-Roman period; it and other sites in the process of being similarly re-dated are said by archaeologists to indicate an architectural continuity between the Roman and early Arab empires.

The ruins of Kfar Lam, a fort made up of rectangular enclosures built of thin slabs of kurkar stone with solid corner towers and semi-circular buttresses, can still be seen today, though the village of the same name was depopulated during the 1948 Palestine war.

Another fort at Ashdod is of the same basic construction but includes a line of marble columns in the centre that were taken from a nearby Classical site.

[clarification needed] The Dome of the Rock was converted into a church given in the care of the Augustinians, while Al-Aqsa mosque was transformed into a palace by Baldwin I.

The influence could even be seen in religious architecture, such that the minaret of the Great Mosque in Ramla bears a striking resemblance to a Crusader tower.

The indirect influence manifested in the development of the counter-Crusade which saw propaganda incorporated into the architecture, specifically via the use of monumental inscriptions and carved elements.

[15] Also under Mamluk rule, the construction of religious buildings such as madrassas, mosques, khanqahs and commemorative mausoleums proliferated in Palestine and these constitute some the finest examples of medieval architecture in the Middle East.

Mamluk architecture in Jerusalem was characterized by the use of joggled voussoirs, ablaq masonry, muqarnas mouldings, and multi-coloured marble inlay.

Jerusalem was redeveloped under Ottoman rule, its walls rebuilt, the Dome of the Rock was redecorated with tiles, and the water system renovated.

[15] Acre also underwent a massive renovation during this time and it is the best example of urban Ottoman architecture in Palestine with several khans, two bath houses, three main souqs, at least ten mosques and a citadel.

Predominant features of stone houses were the domed roofs which in the 18th century were often decorated with swirls, rosettes and semi-circles formed of carved plaster.

Members of the same or related families who are assumed to have enjoyed a good economic situation lived in such structures which generally spanned an area of 200 to 300 metres.

[7] Unique to the architecture of Palestine was the use of masonry cross-vaulting that was covered in mud over a centre supported wood formwork to create domical square spaces.

Whereas in other places in the Arab world, vaulting was reserved for monumental structures, such as palaces, mosques and tombs or for below-ground storage areas, in Palestine, it was also used in the construction of homes.

[19] Characteristic of this architecture is the harmony between site and structure, noted and celebrated by many other Western and Arab writers, and which also emerges as a theme in Canaan's work.

Describing the relationship of the fellah to his house, which he builds and maintains with his own hands, Segal places emphasis on the sense "of belonging, of identification, and of strong emotional attachment."

[23] Ernst Benecke photographed the land and architecture of Palestine in June 1852 using a calotype process which is said by Kathleen Howe to have been particularly suited to the subject matter.