Great Mosque of Sanaa

Common card · No. 308684

The Great Mosque of Sanaa (Arabic: الجامع الكبير بصنعاء, romanized: al-Jāmiʿ al-Kabīr bi-Ṣanʿāʾ) is an ancient mosque in Sanaa, Yemen, and one of the oldest mosques in the world. The mosque is said to have been founded in the early Islamic period, suggested to be in 633. While the precise date of construction is unknown, the earliest recorded renovations occurred under Caliph al-Walid I in the early 8th century, implying a possible earlier date of construction. The mosque was reportedly built in part from spolia from the Himyarite-era Ghumdan Palace and from the Axumite Christian Church of al-Qalis that formerly occupied the site. The Great Mosque is the largest and most notable of over one hundred mosques in the Old City of Sanaa. The building has undergone renovations in the 8th century, the 13th century, and during the Ottoman period. An important archaeological find was the Sanaa manuscript, discovered there during restoration in 1972. Today, the Great Mosque of Sanaa is part of the...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Rod Waddington from Kergunyah, Australia, CC BY-SA 2.0