Gaza Historic Urban Fabric, Palestine

A gateway between Asia and Africa, the Gaza Strip has been a crossroads of cultures since Neolithic times—but in the wake of the October 7, 2023 conflict, its architectural and archaeological heritage has suffered unprecedented damage and destruction. 

First documented in ancient Egyptian records over 3,000 years ago, Gaza’s strategic location on the eastern Mediterranean made it a hub for trade and settlement. Over millennia, a succession of cultures and empires, including the Philistines, Assyrians, Romans, Byzantines, Crusaders, Mamluks, and Ottoman Turks, left their mark on the region. More than 300 heritage sites across Gaza testify to these diverse influences, embodying its rich cultural heritage. Many of these sites are concentrated in urban areas, where they remain integral to the cityscape. 

The heritage places damaged or destroyed include mosques, shrines, markets, archives, museums, and archaeological sites that represented places of worship, gathering, and culture in the daily life of Palestinian people. 

The Great Omari Mosque in Gaza City, one of Gaza’s most iconic landmarks, has hosted worship for millennia as the site of Philistine and Roman temples, Byzantine and Crusader churches, and mosques. In December 2023, an airstrike largely destroyed this public place of prayer, collapsing its central section and partially toppling its minaret. 

Qasr al-Basha, or Pasha’s Palace, embodies centuries of Gaza’s transformation, having served as a grand thirteenth-century Mamluk mansion, a fortress for Ottoman pashas (governors), a British Mandate police station, a girl’s school, and since 2010, a museum displaying archaeological artifacts from across Gaza City’s history. In December 2023, airstrikes destroyed the palace walls, courtyards, and gardens.  

Other damaged sites include Suq Al-Qaisariyya, a recently restored Mamluk-era market that served as Gaza City’s gold market since the late twentieth century; Sabil Ar-Rifaiya, a sixteenth-century fountain restored in 1861; and Hammam as-Samra, Gaza’s last remaining traditional bathhouse and a site with links to the Samaritan community. 

While the conflict continues, hundreds of other treasured heritage places in Gaza remain in peril—including the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius, built in the fifth century CE, believed to be one of the oldest active churches in the world, and Tell Umm El-'Amr (Saint Hilarion Monastery), a 2012 World Monuments Watch site inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage in Danger List in 2024.