ʾUmayyād Mosque: the Prayer Hall

 

 The impressive Prayer Hall is composed of three longitudinal aisles, broken in the middle by the Transept. Two rows of columns with Corinthian capitals and semicircular arches  separate the aisles. Those columns are surmounted by smaller ones, the semicircular arches of which carry the massive wooden beams of the ceiling.  

Four mighty pillars designate the cubic shape of the Transept, crowned by the Eagle's Dome قبّة النسر. The pillars are richly decorated, though not as lavishly as is the norm with comparable monuments in Morocco and Andalusia. All decoration is modern; the fire of 1893 has obliterated the original in its entirety. 

Colorful Persian carpets cover the floor of the Prayer Hall through and through. They convey a pleasant feeling of warmth  and mute the noise. Some of those carpets are fine specimens of Shiraz but virtually all are new. 

The modern wooden Minbar المنبر (pulpit) occupies - next to the main Mihrab محراب (an apse-shaped niche pointing in the direction of Mecca) - the center of the south wall of the sanctuary.

Hans von Kiesling. Damaskus, altes und neues aus Syrien

ʾUmayyād Mosque: the Inner Façade