The architecture of Palestine covers a vast historical time frame and a number of different styles and influences over the ages. The urban architecture of the region of Palestine prior to 1850 was relatively sophisticated. While it belonged to greater geographical and cultural context of the Levant and the Arab world, it constituted a distinct tradition, "significantly different from the traditions of Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt." Nonetheless 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.Ron Fuchs in Necipoğlu, 1998, p. 173
History Ancient architecture 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. The paucity of written records, and the incompleteness of archaeological remains of ancient Palestinian housing available to early scholars, resulted in biblical archaeologists often looking to modern Palestinian houses to try to imagine how ancient housing in Palestine was constructed in biblical times. 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." Beebe notes that a full account of the architectural details of ancient Palestinian housing is rarely possible, but that written records and archaeological findings available to scholars at his time of writing (1968), provide "a quite reliable picture of houses in the common life of ancient Palestine."
Excavations in Beidha in modern-day Jordan indicate that the earliest Palestinian houses were constructed about 9,000 years ago. Consisting of stone foundations with a superstructure made of mud-brick, they were simple structures, most often not more than one room with a single doorway, and likely without windows. Four different floor plans preserved from this time period have been identified: multagonal circular, true circular, square, and rectangular. 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. Many of these early houses contained burial chambers beneath the floor. Food was prepared outside the house where the storage silos were also located. Houses were grouped closely together, and sometimes shared a back or side wall in common.
Among the foundations discovered in the Beidha excavations were those of a six-sided, one room house dated to 6800 BCE. Circular house foundations in Beidha dating to about 6000 BCE resembled those found at pre-Pottery Neolithic A Jericho. The floors of the Jericho round houses differed in that they were sunken beneath ground level, with wooden steps leading down into the house. This sunken feature is interpreted as a sign of continuous occupation of these houses over a long period of time. By 5000 BCE, the houses in Jericho were of a rectangular shape, with more than one room. These rooms had straight walls, but with rounded corners that may be a remnant of the prior round house building tradition. Some of the doorframes were reinforced by timber, perhaps to reduce the wear and tear to the mud-brick structure that would be incurred from constant human contact. The floors were covered with hard lime plaster, extending up the walls. By this time, water and grain storage had moved to house interiors, while thick layers of charcoal uncovered in house courtyards indicate that food preparations were carried out there.
Classical Antiquity Five types of housing are seen in the Roman-Byzantine period. Two of these, the simple house and the courtyard house, typify the domestic architecture of Palestine for some three millennia into the modern age (see section on Building materials and techniques). The other three, seen as characteristic of the Roman-Byzantine period, are the big mansion (domus), the farmhouse and the shop-house. 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. The oldest known examples of this kind of structure in the Galilee were situated in Philoteria/Bet Yerah and date to the late Hellenistic period. Examples of the farmhouse type found thus far date exclusively to the Herodian period.Moxnes, 1997, p. 53
Architectural remains from the early Christian period are scant in Palestine. Scholars like Walter E. Rast attribute this to the relative powerlessness of the early Christian communities prior to the institutionalization of the Christian church. The earliest known building from this period, a church built in octagonal form, dates to the 2nd or 3rd centuries CE. While there is evidence that Christians venerated a number of sites associated with Jesus at this early time, very few structures have been found that were constructed at this 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.Rast, 1992, p. 179
Arab caliphate period (640–1099)
Major changes to the monumental architecture of Palestine followed the Arab Islamic conquest of the region in 637 CE. The Roman and Byzantine churches, predominant features in many towns and villages in Palestine over the previous six centuries, were quickly joined by mosques, though the construction of churches continued. Much of the construction in this period was centered in Jerusalem. One of the most famous early monuments expressing the new role of Islam in the region was the Dome of the Rock (Qabbat as-Sakhra). 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.Rast, 1992, pp. 195 - 196.
While these buildings and the construction of the Royal Palace established Jerusalem as a religious and cultural centre of Islam, the administrative capital of the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates was Ramla, a new town established in the years following the Arab conquest. 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.Pringle, 1998, pp. 182-185
Archaeological finds indicate that the major cities of the Byzantine period (Lydda, Bisan, Tiberias, Gaza, Caesarea, and Acre continued to be occupied in this period and a number of new settlements were built outside the cities and in the Negev as well. Of these, some were agricultural centres while others were palaces or summer resorts for the elite. Examples include palace of Khirbat al-Mafjar, also known locally as Hisham's Palace, outside Jericho and Khirbat al-Minya near Tiberias. Khirbat al-Mafjar is described as, "the most elaborate palace of the period [...] in the state of Palestine." A statue of the Caliph al-Walid II, who likely commissioned its construction between 743 and 748, stands at the entrance to the palatial baths. The architectural form and detailing exhibit a melange of Sassanian and Syrian styles.Fletcher, 1996, p. 584 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).Whitcomb in Szuchman, 2009, p. 241 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.
Monumental construction was rarer during the later Abbasid and Fatimid dynasties due to increasing political fragmentation. Palestinian stonework had already established a reputation for fluency and innovation. Two large monuments that can be dated to the 10th and 11th centuries are fortified structures designed to guard against Byzantine invasion. 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. Just outside that fort lie the remains of a building topped with a dome that had holes cut into it to let in the light which is thought to have served as a bathhouse.Petersen, 2002, p. 231.
Crusader period (1099–1291)
The most well-known architectural legacy left by the Crusaders were the fortified castles built in prominent positions throughout Palestine. A typical Crusader castle consisted of a square or rectangular tower surrounded by irregular enclosure walls that followed the shape of the land and famous castles include those of Belvoir and Monfort.
Another major focus of the Crusader building effort were churches. Hundreds of churches were constructed during the Crusader period in Palestine, with 60 built in Jerusalem alone. Some of these were built on the ruins of earlier Byzantine churches; in other cases, mosques were transformed into churches. 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. Fine carved capitals and sculpture were a feature of the Crusader churches. After Jerusalem was reconquered by the Ayyubids in 1187, the Crusader presence in Palestine shrank to be centered around Acre where some of the finest Crusader architecture was built until their final defeat by the Mamluks there in 1291.
The influence of Crusader architecture on the Islamic architecture of Palestine that followed was both direct and indirect. The direct influence can be seen in the cushion-shaped voussoirs and folded cross-vaults that were adapted for use in the Mamluk buildings of Jerusalem. Additionally, Arab castles constructed following the Crusades, like the later phases of the Ajlun Castle (Qa'lat Rabad) and Nimrod Castle (Qa'lat Namrud), adopted the irregular shapes introduced by the Crusaders. 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. For example, on the Baybars Bridge outside Lod, the lion of Baybars, the famous Mamluk leader and warrior, can be seen catching a mouse.
Mamluk period (1250–1517)
The Mamluks focused on revitalizing the road network, which was essential to their postal system in Palestine. Numerous bridges and khans were built, some of which constituted larger compounds complete with a mosque and minaret. An impressive example of one of these larger khan compounds can be seen in Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip. Some of the Mamluk bridges also remain standing, such as Jisr Jindas ("Jindas Bridge") which is flanked by two lions and sports Arabic inscriptions.