The custodial guide identifies four minarets: Ghawanima, the Tribes Gate or Asbat minaret, the Moroccan Gate or Fakhriyya minaret, and the Chain Gate minaret. They belong to the perimeter architecture. Their present forms reflect different building and repair phases rather than a single uniform construction campaign.[1]
In this guide
A minaret is not simply another small dome
The useful visual distinction is the tower. A minaret rises vertically above the surrounding buildings and incorporates upper stages or a balcony. The smaller courtyard domes organize relatively low spaces beneath a roof. A minaret may itself have a domed top, but that does not make the tower equivalent to the freestanding domed pavilions around the raised platform.[2]
Ghawanima and a source conflict
The existing Explore source, Madain Project, dates Ghawanima Minaret to 1297–98 under Sultan Lajin. The 2015 custodial guide instead prints 1278 while also associating the building with Lajin. These dates cannot both identify the same construction campaign. We retain the source attribution and flag the discrepancy rather than combining them into a spurious range or claiming that the earlier date has been verified.[3][4]
Different silhouettes
Ghawanima is recognizable as a staged stone tower near the northwestern corner. The guide describes the Asbat minaret’s cylindrical form as the result of Ottoman rebuilding, while the Chain Gate minaret has a square form. Comparing these profiles is a better first exercise than assuming that every minaret shares the same period because the towers serve a related function.[3][1]
Gate names can also name towers
The naming of a minaret after a nearby gate can make a search result ambiguous. A photograph labeled Bab al-Silsila may concern the gateway, the tower above its vicinity, or the area around it. Read the complete label and inspect the building type. The same care is needed for Ghawanima, where the gate and minaret are related landmarks but are not the same architectural element.[5]
What remains to be verified
A full chronology would compare building inscriptions, published architectural surveys and conservation records for each tower. A guidebook is a useful overview, but a contradictory date should trigger that comparison. Explore now has an individual record for each of the four minarets, with a photograph, source references and qualified dates. The unresolved details are recorded there rather than hidden behind a single founding year.[1][3]
Sources & references
References are attached to the passages they support. Dates below record source consultation.
- A Guide to Al-Aqsa Mosque / Al-Haram Ash-Sharif (2015)
pp. 30–31
PASSIA · Jerusalem Awqaf · Hashemite Fund · Consulted 2026-09-14
- A Guide to Al-Aqsa Mosque / Al-Haram Ash-Sharif (2015)
pp. 24–31
PASSIA · Jerusalem Awqaf · Hashemite Fund · Consulted 2026-09-14
- Al-Ghawanima Minaret
Madain Project · Consulted 2026-09-14
- A Guide to Al-Aqsa Mosque / Al-Haram Ash-Sharif (2015)
p. 30
PASSIA · Jerusalem Awqaf · Hashemite Fund · Consulted 2026-09-14
- A Guide to Al-Aqsa Mosque / Al-Haram Ash-Sharif (2015)
pp. 30–31, 46–51
PASSIA · Jerusalem Awqaf · Hashemite Fund · Consulted 2026-09-14