12th century prayer room found under mosque in Iraq’s Mosul

The foundations of a prayer hall from the 12th century have been discovered under Al Nuri mosque — where the Daesh group once proclaimed their “caliphate” — in Iraq’s Mosul, site managers said on Tuesday.

The mosque, which along with its iconic leaning minaret was severely damaged by Daesh during the battle to dislodge the militants from Mosul in 2017, has been undergoing reconstruction.

The prayer room was found during excavation underneath the mosque, according to Khaireddine Nasser, director of the department of antiquities and heritage in Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital.

Four additional rooms for the performance of ablutions were also discovered under the prayer room, Nasser said.

ALSO READ:

• UAE: Statue dating back to first century discovered in Sharjah

• It’s the oldest: Archaeologists find 150k-year-old jewellery

• UAE: Rare Islamic coins from Abbasid Dynasty discovered in Sharjah

Those rooms “are interconnected and built of stone and plaster”.

The discovery allows for “better knowledge of the surface of Al Nuri mosque and this ancient prayer room, but also the ablution basins” found there.

Each ablution room measures three metres in height and 3.5 metres in width, Nasser said.

Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi made his sole public appearance as Daesh chief at the mosque in the Summer of 2014.