Marble
University of Notre Dame
Loading navigation...

Great Mosque of Damascus: Facade of prayer-hall with courtyard and ablution fountain

Date

Circa 1910

Location

Architecture Library, Hesburgh Libraries

The central facade is the propylaeum from Roman times, which had been repurposed in the Christian church, and finally in the mosque. The Great Mosque of Damascus constructed by the Umayyad caliph al-Walid I (reigned 705-715), is a seminal monument of Islamic architecture. The site chosen was the holiest in the city, having successively held temples to the Syrian storm-god Hadad and Jupiter Damascenus and the church of John the Baptist (the mosque still contains a shrine to John the Baptist). The prayer hall used the existing propylaeum and is laid out internally on an east-west axis like a Christian basilica.

Cite This
The central facade is the propylaeum from Roman times, which had been repurposed in the Christian church, and finally in the mosque. The Great Mosque of Damascus constructed by the Umayyad caliph al-Walid I (reigned 705-715), is a seminal monument of Islamic architecture. The site chosen was the holiest in the city, having successively held temples to the Syrian storm-god Hadad and Jupiter Damascenus and the church of John the Baptist (the mosque still contains a shrine to John the Baptist). The prayer hall used the existing propylaeum and is laid out internally on an east-west axis like a Christian basilica.
Open external viewer application
G. Massiot & cie
Circa 1910
photographs
https://curate.nd.edu/show/j098z893p1m

Our collection information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. If you have spotted an error, please contact Architecture Library, Hesburgh Libraries at asklib@nd.edu.

Also from

Architectural Lantern Slides of Syria