Nabi Yahya Mosque
The Nabi Yahya Mosque (Arabic: جامع النبي يحيى, romanized: Jama'a Nabi Yahya), literally the Mosque of the Prophet John, is a mosque containing the traditional tomb of John the Baptist, in Sebastia, Palestine. The mosque also contains the tombs of Elisha and Obadiah, prophets who were buried next to John the Baptist.
It is the main mosque in the Palestinian village of Sebastia, near Nablus. It is located in the central square of the village. It is constructed of large buttressed walls. Within its courtyard, a stairway in the small domed building leads down into a cave.
History[edit]
Byzantine church[edit]
The Nabi Yahya Mosque stands on the site identified since Byzantine times as the place where John the Baptist's body was buried by his followers. Matthew 14:12[1] records that "his disciples came and took away [John's] body and buried it". A church was erected on the spot of the tomb during the Byzantine era.
Prison of John the Baptist[edit]
Local tradition in both the Christian and Muslim communities of the area notes that Sebastia also contained the site of the prison of John the Baptist and is the place where he was beheaded; however this was a separate church in the old city and is a claim refuted by the account of the first century historian Josephus, which recorded the site of the beheading as Machaerus, across the Jordan, some 80–90 miles (130–140 km) away.[5]