12th Century Prayer Room Found under Mosque in Iraq’s Mosul

Excavations around the Al-Nuri mosque in the old town of Iraq's northern city Mosul, which was heavily damaged by ISIS in 2017. (AFP)
Excavations around the Al-Nuri mosque in the old town of Iraq's northern city Mosul, which was heavily damaged by ISIS in 2017. (AFP)
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12th Century Prayer Room Found under Mosque in Iraq’s Mosul

Excavations around the Al-Nuri mosque in the old town of Iraq's northern city Mosul, which was heavily damaged by ISIS in 2017. (AFP)
Excavations around the Al-Nuri mosque in the old town of Iraq's northern city Mosul, which was heavily damaged by ISIS in 2017. (AFP)

The foundations of a prayer hall from the 12th century have been discovered under the Al-Nuri mosque -- where the ISIS group once proclaimed their so-called "caliphate" -- in Iraq's Mosul, site managers said Tuesday.

The mosque, which along with its iconic leaning minaret was severely damaged by ISIS during the battle to dislodge the jihadists from Mosul in 2017, has been undergoing reconstruction.

The prayer room was found during excavation underneath the mosque, according to Khaireddine Nasser, director of the department of antiquities and heritage in Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital.

Four additional rooms for the performance of ablutions were also discovered under the prayer room, Nasser said.

Those rooms "are interconnected and built of stone and plaster".

The discovery allows for "better knowledge of the surface of Al-Nuri mosque and this ancient prayer room, but also the ablution basins" found there.

Each ablution room measures three meters (almost 10 feet) in height and 3.5 meters in width, Nasser said.

"They are about six meters underground," he added.

He said the discovery "amplifies the importance of this historical and archaeological site".

The excavation was carried out by his department, with support from UNESCO and funding from the United Arab Emirates.

"The foundations of the old prayer hall are more extensive than those of the prayer hall built in the 1940s", he added.

The mosque was constructed in 1172, but much of it was destroyed and reconstructed in 1942, with the exception of its minaret, which endured.

UNESCO raised more than $100 million in 2019 as part of its initiative to "revive the spirit of Mosul". About half of the funds were pledged by the UAE.

Reconstruction work is expected to be completed by the end of 2023.



Nearby Sculptor Galaxy Revealed in Ultra-Detailed Galactic Image

This undated handout image released by European Southern Observatory on June 17, 2025 shows a detailed, thousand-color image of the Sculptor Galaxy captured with the MUSE instrument at ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). (Handout / European Southern Observatory / AFP)
This undated handout image released by European Southern Observatory on June 17, 2025 shows a detailed, thousand-color image of the Sculptor Galaxy captured with the MUSE instrument at ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). (Handout / European Southern Observatory / AFP)
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Nearby Sculptor Galaxy Revealed in Ultra-Detailed Galactic Image

This undated handout image released by European Southern Observatory on June 17, 2025 shows a detailed, thousand-color image of the Sculptor Galaxy captured with the MUSE instrument at ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). (Handout / European Southern Observatory / AFP)
This undated handout image released by European Southern Observatory on June 17, 2025 shows a detailed, thousand-color image of the Sculptor Galaxy captured with the MUSE instrument at ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). (Handout / European Southern Observatory / AFP)

The Sculptor galaxy is similar in many respects to our Milky Way. It is about the same size and mass, with a similar spiral structure. But while it is impossible to get a full view of the Milky Way from the vantage point of Earth because we are inside the galaxy, Sculptor is perfectly positioned for a good look.

Astronomers have done just that, releasing an ultra-detailed image of the Sculptor galaxy on Wednesday obtained with 50 hours of observations using one of the world's biggest telescopes, the European Southern Observatory's Chile-based Very Large Telescope.

The image shows Sculptor, also called NGC 253, in around 4,000 different colors, each corresponding to a specific wavelength in the optical spectrum.

Because various galactic components emit light differently across the spectrum, the observations are providing information at unprecedented detail on the inner workings of an entire galaxy, from star formation to the motion of interstellar gas on large scales. Conventional images in astronomy offer only a handful of colors, providing less information.

The researchers used the telescope's Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer, or MUSE, instrument.

"NGC 253 is close enough that we can observe it in remarkable detail with MUSE, yet far enough that we can still see the entire galaxy in a single field of view," said astronomer Enrico Congiu, a fellow at the European Southern Observatory in Santiago, and lead author of research being published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

"In the Milky Way, we can achieve extremely high resolution, but we lack a global view since we're inside it. For more distant galaxies, we can get a global view, but not the fine detail. That's why NGC 253 is such a perfect target: it acts as a bridge between the ultra-detailed studies of the Milky Way and the large-scale studies of more distant galaxies. It gives us a rare opportunity to connect the small-scale physics with the big-picture view," Congiu said.

Sculptor is about 11 million light-years from Earth, making it one of the closest big galaxies to the Milky Way. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km).

Like the Milky Way, it is a barred spiral galaxy, meaning it has an elongated structure extending from its nucleus, with spiral arms extending from the ends of the bar. Its diameter of about 88,000 light-years is similar to the Milky Way's, as is its total mass. One major difference is Sculptor's rate of new star formation, estimated to be two to three times greater than that of the Milky Way.

Nearly 30% of this star formation is happening near the galaxy's nucleus in what is called a starburst region, as revealed in colorful emissions shown in the new image.

The observations have given information on a wide range of properties such as the motion, age and chemical composition of stars and the movement of interstellar gas, an important component of any galaxy.

"Since the light from stars is typically bluer if the stars are young or redder if the stars are old, having thousands of colors lets us learn a lot about what stars and populations of stars exist in the galaxy," said astronomer Kathryn Kreckel of Heidelberg University in Germany, a study co-author.

"Similarly for the gas, it glows in specific bright emission lines at very specific colors, and tells us about the different elements that exist in the gas, and what is causing it to glow," Kreckel said.

The initial research being published from the observations involves planetary nebulae, which are luminous clouds of gas and dust expelled by certain dying stars. Despite their name, they have nothing to do with planets. These nebulae can help astronomers measure the precise distances of faraway galaxies.

The researchers marveled at the scientific and aesthetic value of the new view of Sculptor.

"I personally find these images amazing," Congiu said. "What amazes me the most is that every time I look at them, I notice something new - another nebula, a splash of unexpected color or some subtle structure that hints at the incredible physics behind it all."