Nabi Musa

The Nabi Musa complex, with its thick stone walls, blue domes, arched entrances, stone tiles and desert mystic, is a burial site and an ancient mosque which the Mamluk sultan Baibars built in 1269 in the heart of the Judean desert. According to Muslim tradition, this is the burial place of the Prophet Moses. This complex spreads over a huge area of 5,000 dunams and in addition to the domed structure there is also a high and impressive minaret here which is seen to a distance. Outside the walls of the complex, on the slopes of the hill, is a large cemetery, where pilgrims who have died during their visit here and important people who asked to be buried near this holy place, are buried. Inside the structure of the mosque are elegant marble columns which are integrated into the mihrabs, or prayer niches, and stand around the tomb itself.