Taking a shine

A new, second golden dome graces Jerusalem’s skyline

While the iconic Dome of the Rock is lined with real gold, Al-Rahman Mosque in Beit Safafa has only been painted to look like the real thing

By Sue Surkes

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6 December 2021, 4:36 pm Edit

Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter

The Abdul Rachman mosque in Beit Safafa, Jerusalem. (Sue Surkes/Times of Israel)

Jerusalem now has a second golden dome, as those driving along the main road to the east of the Beit Safafa neighborhood will have noticed.

But unlike the famous Dome of the Rock in the Old City, adorned with 5,000 actual gold plates financed by the late king Hussein of Jordan, this smaller version, atop the Al-Rahman Mosque, has merely been painted to look like the real thing.

One of four mosques in the southern Jerusalem Arab neighborhood, Al-Rahman, built before Israel’s founding in 1948, is being renovated and expanded at the pace at which donations come in from locals and Arabs living in northern Israel.

Community leader Muhammad Alian said that he had seen similar gold-painted domes on mosques in Umm al-Fahm in northern Israel and around Ramallah in the West Bank.