The precious jewel inside the walls of Damascus

In the video, mosques ... "the Great Umayyad" ... the greatest mosque in the world, a celebration

picture

Ibn Battuta said about him in his book, “It is the greatest mosque in the world as a celebration, and has mastered its industry, and created it with goodness, joy and perfection, and no counterpart is known to it, and there is no similar to it.” It is the mosque that historians mentioned and the slogan, and it is sung by everyone who saw it, it is an architectural, archaeological and cultural masterpiece Which was the cradle of Islamic architecture and its start, and the precious jewel that was taken from the oldest capital in history its headquarters, is the Great Mosque of Banu Umayyad.

The Great Mosque of Bani Umayyad, or the Umayyad Mosque for short, which is located inside the walls of the old city of Damascus, was ordered to be built by the sixth Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid bin Abdul-Malik in the year 715 AD, envisioning that he would present to the Islamic world a mosque that had not been preceded by nations before, and he had that after more than 10 Years of tireless work that began in the year 705 AD, and thousands of masons and craftsmen from all over the world, to present to the world an unprecedented model of ancient architecture.

The original building of the mosque is considered one of the most important buildings through which it is possible to read the history of the city, as its construction dates back to 1200 BC, when Damascus was the capital of the state (Aram Damascus) during the Iron Age, where a temple was built for their god "select", the god of fertility Thunder and rain, according to their belief, so that the Romans would then invade Damascus, and find their way in this temple, which they turned into a temple for their god "Jupiter". At the end of the fourth century AD, it was transformed into St. John's Cathedral, and in the year 634 Khalid bin Walid succeeded in annexing the city to The Islamic lands, and decades later, the Islamic caliphate came under the rule of the Umayyad dynasty, who chose Damascus as the Islamic administrative capital. Caliph Al-Walid bin Abdul-Malik commissioned the craftsmen and engineers to build an iconic mosque on the site of the Byzantine cathedral.

The floor of the Umayyad Mosque has a rectangular shape, with a large courtyard, while the interior space consists of three corridors parallel to the direction of the qibla, supported by ornate columns and endless arches. The courtyard and the campus of the Umayyad Mosque are also decorated with a luxurious façade, overlooking a courtyard that includes 25 doors that open directly to the Haram.

The light-blue dome of the eagle is considered the most important achievement of Caliph Al-Walid bin Abdul-Malik, and the largest domes of the mosque, which were renewed during the following eras, and are located above the center of the prayer, resting on a layer below it with eight sides, as artists, painters and craftsmen flocked for many years to decorate the mosque, which was covered Its walls are decorated with mosaics with gradations that have not been seen in history, in addition to colored metals and gold-plated ones, and painted and inspired paintings of nature.

• 45 meters height of the main dome.

• 10 years of hard work began in AD 705.

• 12 thousand people worked on the construction.

• 77 meters, the height of the three minarets of the mosque.

• The mihrab of the Umayyad Mosque is considered the first mihrab to be included in the style of Islamic architecture, as the mihrab dates back to the Byzantine Church, which the mosque took its place, and the idea of ​​adopting mihrabs has continued since then.

• The mosque includes the tomb of the Prophet Yahya, peace be upon him, and local legend indicates that the head of the Prophet Yahya was buried in the mosque, and it also includes a cemetery that includes the remains of Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi.

• The original construction of the mosque is considered one of the most important buildings through which it is possible to read the history of the city.