Great Mosque of Aleppo

The Umayyad Mosque (Arabic الجامع الأموي, DMG al - ʿ al - ʾ ǧāmi Umawi ) of Aleppo is Syria's Friday Mosque, which dates back I. Sulaiman or to the Umayyad caliph al - Walid. Around the year 715 erected as a second mosque of the city, it is about ten years younger than the non- more famous Umayyad Mosque of Damascus.

The mosque was built at the spot where, until then, the Ancient Agora was. Opposite her was long the Emperor Justinian built ( on a Roman temple ) St. Helena Cathedral, which was first converted into a mosque and then into the Madrasa al - Halawiya in the 12th century.

In contrast to her sister in the capital, the large, north of the Suq main street opposite the Mosque of Aleppo transformed during its turbulent history often and extensively, which mostly had to do with earthquakes, fires or other disasters such as the Mongol invasion of 1260. Therefore, in the now to be seen almost nothing complex dates from the early Islamic period; the oldest part was to 2013 the Seljuk Turks (late 11th century) declining, around 45 m high minaret on the north -west corner. The rest was restored after a fire in 1169 by the Zengids Nur ad -Din Mahmud and the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods were to make additional modifications.

On the large courtyard ( sahn ) of the mosque, whose black and white paving forms geometric patterns, there are two fountains cleaning, inside a Minbar from the 15th century and a shrine, which allegedly the remains of the Islamic prophet Zacharias ( Zakariya ) the father of John the Baptist contains.

The Aleppo Umayyad mosque was completely renovated in 2005 to over several years.

In 2013, the mosque was severely damaged in the course of the fighting in the ongoing Syrian civil war, where on April 24, collapsed in the minaret of the mosque. The government and the rebels accuse each other of responsibility for the destruction.