Amid the 1834 CE Fellahin Revolt, Jerusalem was shaken by a major earthquake at 6am on the 26th of May. An Anonymous Welsh Traveler recorded his eyewitness account, calling it one of the “strongest ever felt in Palestine.” He reported that it destroyed many houses, “levelled … that part of the [Jerusalem] city wall which passes the temple of the Muhammadans [likely Al-Aqsa Mosque ],” and killed many residents. He added that “for ten days earthquakes continued to rock the city,” though none matched the first shock.

A second eyewitness was the monk Neophytos, who specified further details. He wrote that the earthquake “lasted but three seconds, but it was so violent that the dome of the Catholicon was cracked in seven places and all the plaster fell off.” He added that “the big dome of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was shaken,” but not greatly damaged, and that “many big houses in Jerusalem were cracked and many fell.” He further recorded that “part of the city wall, near the Mosque of Omar , fell,” that minarets collapsed in Jerusalem and on the Mount of Olives, and that the dome of the Shrine of the Ascension also fell.

Writing a few years later, Baptisin Poujoulat summarized the shock’s impact: “At the same time, the plague and a violent earthquake broke out in Jerusalem; the holy city was plunged into the most appalling consternation.” In 1853, Titus Tobler wrote that “in July 1834, a strong earthquake threw down several piles , and also blew out one part of the wall by a Mosque [possibly Al-Aqsa Mosque], and threatened the collapse of the Latin Roofters .” Finally, the History of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem notes succinctly that “the Dome of the Catholicon was partly destroyed by an earthquake [in 1834] and repaired by the Greeks,” a statement that confirms the damage reported by Neophytos and attests to its subsequent restoration.