L'orientamento della prima moschea di Gerusalemme sul Monte del Tempio

Since the second half of the 9th century mosques have been oriented in the direction of the Ka‘ba in Mecca (qibla). Before that date, instead, they reproduced the orientation of the Ka‘ba, the N-S axis of which is aligned with the rising point of Canopus. This fact, along with information gained by reading Ya‘qūb of Edessa, an 8th-century source, would explain the planimetric oddities presented by the first mosque built in Jerusalem (Aqsa I) on the platform of Herod’s Temple. Moreover, by investigating the orientation of the latter, it is possible to ascertain that its N-S axis was oriented toward the the rising point of Canopus in 20 B.C. within 16 arcminutes. Therefore, Herod’s Temple and the Ka‘ba had the same orientation.