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The Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem, Israel The Dome of the Rock (also known as Qubbat as-Sarah) is a sacred shrine built in the seventh century (688 to 691 AD) by the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik. The exterior of The Dome of the Rock is octagonal. It has seven windows and one door on each side. The interior is circle-shaped.
The mosque is made of marble and decorated with mosaics, painted stucco, tile, and gilded wood. It is believed that people, who built the Dome of the Rock, arrived from different world regions and made their contribution by way of different techniques and motifs of architecture and design. The golden dome of the mosque is twenty meters in diameter. The mosque is built over the sacred stone. According to the legend, it is the place from which the Prophet Muhammad stood before he ascended to the heavens during his Night Journey. The architecture of The Dome of the Rock is amazing.
Despite of numerous repairs and renewals, which left their mark on this remarkable monument of Islamic architecture, we can see the ancient walls and ancient constructions of the building. The Dome of the Rock was built when simple portal-column type constructions were popular. They combined portal and closed cube of the building, topped with a dome. The architectural complex also has harmonious and well-proportioned round minarets, and squares.
The ornament also plays an important role: the diversity of colorful ceramic mosaics, rich and glaring glazed bricks, terracotta blocks is incredible. It attracts attention and leaves the viewer thunderstruck. When you look at The Dome of the Rock, the gorgeous ornamentation makes you that this architectural complex is not an ordinary Islamic mosque but one of the most important sacred places for all Muslims. You start believing in all Islamic legends about Muhammad's Night Journey, when Muhammad was woken up by Archangel Gabriel and was brought to Jerusalem riding the winged horse. Besides, his leg-print and three hairs from Muhammad's beard serve the evidence of that incredible fact and make you believe in this exciting legend. The Dome of the Rock is one of the most ancient Islamic edifices.
Some scientists call it non-Islamic because when you look at it, you can clearly notice the influence of the architecture of the early Christian period. The Dome of the Rock is not only the third most important Islamic sacred place by the value, but is the greatest architectural construction of the Middle East. When you look at the pictures, you can notice that the mosque, built over the rock looks like a dome that covers this sacred place. It is believed, that from the very beginning the dome was made of gold, but historians claim that the dome was covered by the leaden roof, and its exterior surface was overlaid by skin plates made of gilded copper. The leaden roof was replaced by specially gilded aluminum plates during the renewal of the architectural complex. The dome is 34 meters in height and is visible from afar.
When we look at the picture, we can see that the dome is placed on the base supported by stone columns. The exterior walls of the mosque are octahedral and have wonderful arcades. Originally the walls were covered by glass mosaics, but in XVI the mosaics was replaced by nice plates decorated in Muslim style. When we look at the picture of the interior, we can observe that the mosque is divided by two lines of columns into three circles.
Such division allows the pilgrims to approach the sacred rock. There is a cave with eleven footsteps located under the sacred rock. The columns are also decorated by floral and abstract ornamentation's of the exquisite workmanship. We also can notice the hole in the ceiling of the cave. We can easily imagine how the blood of sacrificial animals trickled down to the cave. The Dome of the Rock has four doors directed at four parts of the world.
The Northern entrance is known as the Heavens Gates, the Eastern entrance is called the Davids Gates. The Southern gates are considered the central entrance. The interior of the Dome of the Rock is richly decorated by amazing mosaics with floral ornamentation made under visible influence of the Byzantine art. The interior walls and the elements of interior cupola are decorated by ornamentation's with letters and inscriptions. Such ornamentation's, made in gold and red, are the indispensable decorative attributes of Islamic art. One of the inscriptions commemorates Caliph Saladin, who sponsored the restoration work on the mosque.
The interior of Dome of the Rock, rich in mosaics with stylized and realistic pictures and representations proves Marilyn Stockstads argument that diversity of the abstract decorative impulses was nurtured partially by the recurrent Islamic prohibition to depict the human figure. As we can see, the interior of Dome of the Rock is decorated by incredible ornamentation depicting floral and abstract motifs. The mosque is remarkable for its especial majesty and harmonic feeling of proportions. The Dome of the Rock witnesses of the architects talent and thorough and complete mastery of the technique. The sacred shrine inspires the feeling of solemnity. The majestic architectural complex is remarkable for its unity of architectural forms and delicate beauty of mosaics that managed to retain its purity and freshness of nicely selected colors.
We come to conclusion that the Dome of the Rock embodies the best features of the monumental Islamic architecture.
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Research essay sample on The Dome Of Rock Jerusalem Israel
