Over the cave stands a large rectangular enclosure dating from the Herodian era. Byzantine Christians took it over and built a basilica which after the Muslim conquest was converted into the Ibrahimi Mosque. Crusaders took over the site in the 12th century, but it was taken back by Saladin in 1188 and reconverted into a mosque. Israel took control of the site in 1967, dividing the structure into a synagogue and a mosque. In 1994, the Hebron massacre occurred in which a Jewish settler killed 29 Muslims praying in the mosque.