Umayyad Mosque
Damascus, Syria 2010
One of the largest and oldest mosques in the world, the Umayyad Mosque was built on the site of a Christian Basilica dedicated to St. John the Baptist. The mosque is located at the end of the main street of the Souk El Hamidiyeh. As you leave the souk, you pass through the old Roman arches that once were part of the temple that preceded the basilica. History is everywhere you look.
St. John’s head is said to be somewhere in the mosque…I think in a little side room. I went to look: people, mostly women, were praying or just sitting, but no sign of an altar. To be fair, I might have missed it because we women were compelled to wear a kind of hooded overcoat. My hood kept flopping over my face. So annoying.
I did have a kind of “conversation” with a woman from Iraq. She was resting with her shopping bags around her. I got the idea that she had come to Damascus to shop for items that were unavailable in Iraq but she didn’t show me her purchases. She was in her mid-thirties, wrapped in her chador (as was I) with a pleasant, friendly look about her.
I didn’t enjoy my time in the mosque due to my raincoat chador. I couldn’t lift my camera without the fabric flopping over my face and if I pushed the hood off, I was scolded by our local guide. It’s difficult to shoot a mosque…they are all about an open courtyard and arches and minarets. I never could find the ‘essence’ of the place. I think shoot wide is the best.