Great Mosque of Damascus

According to legend, the head of John the Baptist, a verifiable prophet in both Christian and Muslim beliefs, lives in a shrine of the Umayyad Mosque or Great Mosque of Damascus. The mosque stands on the site of a 1st-century Hellenic temple to Jupiter, guarding a big open courtyard, flanked by an cloister of arches supported by slender columns. The liwan, or hall of worship, running the length of the south side of the mosque, is divided into three long aisles by rows of columns and arches. A transept with a central octagonal dome, originally wooden, cuts across the aisles at their midpoint. Geometric interlace is evident throughout the building, something which became prevalent in Islamic architecture and design (much more than in the west).