HOME | DD

Description
This here is the magnificent outer courtyard of the grand Ummayad Mosque in central Damascus.

A sacred site since the 9th century BC when the Semitic Arameans built a temple here to their chief god Haddad, who was appeased by human sacrifice, when the Romans arrived, they incorporated it into a huge temple to Jupiter(which was far bigger than the current area of the mosque).

When Christianity was adopted as the official religion of the Byzantine (Rome) in the 4th century the temple was torn down and a new Cathedral of John the Baptist(whose head still remains there till this day) was built.

It remained a cathedral long after the Muslims arrived, and even shared part of the compound with the Muslims for a time.

But in 708 the Caliph Al-walid decided that the expanding Muslim population needed a larger space to worship and negotiated with the Christians to acquire it in exchange(compensation) for four alternate churches to be built in other parts of the city.

In the 7 year construction 12,000 workers where employed to build the new Byzantine influenced mosque, among them Mosaic specialists from Constantinople who covered the entire courtyard wall with green and gold Mosaics(seen in picture), sadly only a small part survived to this day.

The free-standing structure you see in the shot is the mosque's treasury (housed taxes and money), raised up to protect it from theft by eight ancient Corinthian columns, the current mystery is how anyone got inside it, there appears to be no entrance

The minaret in the background is called the Minaret of the bride, because legend has it that it was a merchant's dowry to his daughter who was to marry the sultan, apparently it was enough lead to completely cover the roof of the Minaret.

You can see a better shot here: [link]

Description
This here is the magnificent outer courtyard of the grand Ummayad Mosque in central Damascus.

A sacred site since the 9th century BC when the Semitic Arameans built a temple here to their chief god Haddad, who was appeased by human sacrifice, when the Romans arrived, they incorporated it into a huge temple to Jupiter(which was far bigger than the current area of the mosque).

When Christianity was adopted as the official religion of the Byzantine (Rome) in the 4th century the temple was torn down and a new Cathedral of John the Baptist(whose head still remains there till this day) was built.

It remained a cathedral long after the Muslims arrived, and even shared part of the compound with the Muslims for a time.

But in 708 the Caliph Al-walid decided that the expanding Muslim population needed a larger space to worship and negotiated with the Christians to acquire it in exchange(compensation) for four alternate churches to be built in other parts of the city.

In the 7 year construction 12,000 workers where employed to build the new Byzantine influenced mosque, among them Mosaic specialists from Constantinople who covered the entire courtyard wall with green and gold Mosaics(seen in picture), sadly only a small part survived to this day.

The free-standing structure you see in the shot is the mosque's treasury (housed taxes and money), raised up to protect it from theft by eight ancient Corinthian columns, the current mystery is how anyone got inside it, there appears to be no entrance

The minaret in the background is called the Minaret of the bride, because legend has it that it was a merchant's dowry to his daughter who was to marry the sultan, apparently it was enough lead to completely cover the roof of the Minaret.

You can see a better shot here: [link]