LARGE MOSQUE

The Grande Mosque in Aleppo, like the Great Mosque in Damascus, was founded by the Caliph Al-Walid I in 715, 10 years after the decision to erect the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. Built on the site of the Hellenistic agora, it was completely destroyed in 1169. Only the minaret escaped from the devastated fire. . by Bursa in 1090, its 50 m height made it the highest building in Syria for several centuries. Each floor has a different decoration: arlon frise, arches and moulures with three or seven lobes, oculi, windows. The summit looks like a balcony covered with a roof. The muezzin takes place for the call to prayer. The mosque, rebuilt by Noureddin in the th century after the fire, presents a large rectangular courtyard. The ground marble motifs on the facades play harmoniously with the rays of the sun. To the south is a vast and sombre prayer room. We honour it, in a cenotaph with green colours, the head of Saint Zacharie, the father of Saint John Baptiste, who is revered in the Great Mosque in Damascus. The minbar of carved wood encrusted in the th century.