Umayyad Mosque

Umayyad Mosque stands at the spiritual center of Damascus, built for Caliph al-Walid I in 705–15 over layers of Roman and Christian sacred ground, including the basilica of St John the Baptist, whose shrine still draws pilgrims. Its vast courtyard and prayer hall, once sheathed in gold-ground mosaics by Byzantine craftsmen, recast the Barada valley as a vision of paradise, with the Barada Panel among the best-known survivors. Repaired after fires and renewed under Sultan Baybars in the 13th c., it became a lasting model of early Islamic architecture from Syria to al-Andalus.