Great Mosque of Aleppo
| The Great Mosque of Aleppo جامع حلب الكبير |
|
|---|---|
The minaret of the mosque in January 2011
|
|
 Shown within Ancient City of Aleppo
|
|
| Basic information | |
| Location |
 Al-Jalloum district, Aleppo, Syria
|
| Geographic coordinates | 36°11′58″N 37°09′25″E / 36.199492°N 37.156911°ECoordinates: 36°11′58″N 37°09′25″E / 36.199492°N 37.156911°E |
| Affiliation | Islam |
| Status | Temporarily closed |
| Architectural description | |
| Architect(s) | Hasan ibn Mufarraj al-Sarmini |
| Architectural type | Mosque |
| Architectural style | Pre-Islamic North Syrian, Seljuk, Mamluk |
| Completed | 715, 13th century |
| Specifications | |
| Dome(s) | 1 |
| Minaret(s) | 1 (destroyed during the Syrian civil war) |
| Materials | stone |
The Great Mosque of Aleppo (Arabic: جامع حلب الكبير Jāmi‘ Halab al-Kabīr) or the Umayyad Mosque of Aleppo (جامع بني أمية بحلب Jāmi‘ Bani Umayah Bi-Halab) is the largest and one of the oldest mosques in the city of Aleppo, Syria. It is located in al-Jalloum district of the Ancient City of Aleppo, a World Heritage Site, near the entrance to al-Madina Souq. The mosque is purportedly home to the remains of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist. It was built in the beginning of the 8th century. However, the current building dates back to the 11th through 14th centuries. The minaret was built in 1090, and was destroyed during fighting in the Syrian civil war in April 2013.
The site of the Great Mosque was once the agora of the Hellenistic period, which later became the garden for the Cathedral of Saint Helena during the Christian era of Roman rule in Syria.
The mosque was built on confiscated land that formerly served as the Cathedral cemetery. According to later traditions, the construction of the earliest mosque on the site was commenced by the Ummayad caliph al-Walid I in 715 and was finished by his successor Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik in 717. Architectural historian K. A. C. Creswell attributes its construction solely to the latter, quoting 13th century Aleppine historian Ibn al-Adim who wrote Sulayman's intent was "to make it equal to the work of his brother al-Walid in the Great Mosque at Damascus." Another tradition claims al-Walid founded the mosque using materials from the so-called "Church of Cyrrus."
...
Wikipedia