Why is the minaret so short? evidence for earthquake damage on mt zion

On top of King Davids Sepulchre atMtt Zion there is an Ottoman minaret known as al-Nabi Da' ud. Compared with other minarets in Jerusalem, al-Nabi Da' ud seems to be somewhat shorter, and has a squat-like appearance. To track why it is shorter than other minarets, we inspected written historical sources, a sequence ofold drawings dated between the mid-eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries and analysed the minaret s metric proportions. In drawings dated to and before 1833, the minaret is portrayed much higher than in drawings and photographs dated to and after 1838. Furthermore, comparative height-diameter ratio ofvarious parts of the minaret does not fit those of its counterpart, the al-QkaF a minaret. Thus, we suggest that the minaret was originally built higher but damaged during the 1834 earthquake, and reconstructed to a lower height sometimes afterwards.