Photo by EOD
Photo by EOD
One of my favorite features of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus is the incorporation of Roman columns throughout the entire mosque complex–both inside of the mosque and out. The site was once home to a Roman temple to Jupiter–before it was transformed into a Christian basilica. Inside of the mosque is a shrine believed to hold the head of John the Baptist–which is why Pope John Paul II visited the shrine himself in in 2001 in the first papal visit to a mosque. Like many mosques, the Umayyad Mosque is a true palimpsest of pagan, Christian, and Muslim history, iconography, and belief. To get to see it in person–was a dream come true…
Photo by EOD
