The Green Dome over the Prophet's tomb

What lies beneath the dome

The Green Dome stands over the Sacred Chamber (al-Hujrah ash-Sharifah) in the southeastern corner of the Prophet's Mosque. The chamber was originally the room of the Prophet's wife Aisha, one of the modest dwellings built against the mosque's eastern wall. When the Prophet Muhammad died in 632 CE (11 AH), he was buried where he died, in that room, in keeping with the tradition that prophets are buried where they pass away. His closest companion and the first caliph, Abu Bakr, was buried beside him two years later, and the second caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab, joined them in 644 CE. A fourth space in the chamber remains empty; a well-known tradition associates it with the Prophet Isa (Jesus) after his return, though the reports on this are not of the strongest grade and Muslim scholars treat the matter cautiously.

Visitors today do not enter the chamber. It is enclosed within thick walls raised in the Umayyad era, deliberately built without a door and shaped so that the structure could not be faced as an object of prayer. What visitors see from inside the mosque are the gilded brass grilles of the Muwajaha screen, where greetings of peace are offered — a moment most pilgrims combine with a permit-booked visit to the adjacent Rawdah.

When the dome was built

For more than six centuries there was no dome at all: the chamber lay under the mosque's flat roof. The first dome was erected in 1279 CE (678 AH) by the Mamluk sultan al-Mansur Qalawun — a wooden structure sheathed in lead plates, square at its base and octagonal above. It was renewed by later Mamluk sultans, and after lightning struck the mosque in 1481, causing a devastating fire, Sultan Qaytbay rebuilt the dome more solidly. When cracks kept appearing, Qaytbay's craftsmen rebuilt the upper structure again in brick in the 1480s, giving the chamber a masonry dome for the first time.

The dome seen today is essentially Ottoman. Sultan Mahmud II had it rebuilt in 1818, and it was during his reign — in 1837 by most accounts — that it was first painted green. Before that it had appeared in white, blue and purple hues at different times, and older sources call it "the white dome" or "the blue dome". Green, long associated with the Prophet and with Paradise in Islamic tradition, stuck: the dome has been repainted green ever since, and "the Green Dome" (al-Qubbah al-Khadra) became its universal name. There are in fact two domes: a smaller inner dome directly over the chamber, inscribed with the names of those buried below, and the outer green shell above it.

Restorations and debate

The dome has been maintained and repainted repeatedly through the Saudi expansions of the mosque, which have grown around it while leaving the Ottoman core of the southeastern corner — dome, minaret and chamber — intact. In the early years of the modern Saudi state some voices within the strict reformist school argued that domes over graves should be removed, as happened to the mausoleums of Jannat al-Baqi in 1925. The Green Dome was left untouched, and successive governments have preserved and restored it. Its silhouette now appears on everything from city signage to date-box packaging — the de facto emblem of Medina.

Seeing the Green Dome

The best exterior views are from the mosque's southern and eastern esplanades, particularly in the hour after Fajr and before Maghrib, when the light is soft and crowds gather quietly to photograph it. Photography of the dome from the courtyards is generally tolerated; conduct closer to the chamber is stricter, and the etiquette guide explains what to expect. The dome is visible from the roof terraces of many central hotels, which advertise "Haram view" rooms facing it.

Key dates at a glance

For the wider story of the mosque's growth from a palm-trunk courtyard to one of the largest buildings on earth, see the history of Medina and the Prophet's Mosque page.