Mosque of Cordoba -- Located Essay

According to the ArchNet Digital Library the Great Mosque of Cordoba is also called "La Mezquita," "Mezquita-Catedral," "Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba." It has a "hypostyle plan" which consists of a "rectangular prayer hall and an enclosed courtyard." These architectural designs were traditional based on styles established in the Umayyad and Abbasid mosques of Syria and Iraq, the ArchNet Digital Library explains. The system of columns that support double arcades of piers and arches "with alternating red and white voussoirs" is a very original and innovative style of architecture. Structurally, the fascinating visual effect with the actual space created gives greater height within the hall. The ArchNet Digital Library claims that the Great Mosque of Cordoba is similar to the Great Mosque of Damascus and the Dome of the Rock in that the red and white (alternating) voussoirs match up well.

The most "lavish interior ornament" in the Great Mosque of Cordoba is located in the maqsura, which is the prayer space reserved for the ruler.In the U.S. News & World Report magazine (Kingsbury, 2007), the writer points out that having a Christian alter in the midst of a Muslim mosque is "as quirky as it is distinctive." Even before the Muslim conquerors put the mosque where it now stands, the Romans constructed a pagan temple there "to the two-faced Janus, the god of doors and gateways, beginning and endings," Kingsbury writes. Looking back on how the once Muslim Great Mosque of Cordoba was recycled into a Christian place of worship, Janus seems "an apt deity for the site," Kingsbury asserts.

Works Cited

Andalucia.com. (2008). Cordoba City -- Mosque. Retrieved May 25, 2009, from http://www.andalucia.com/cities/cordoba/mosque.htm.

ArchNet Digital Library. (2008). Great Mosque of Cordoba. Retrieved May 25, 2009,

From http://www.archnet.org.

Google. (2009). Timeline: 600 AD -- 2009. History of the Grand Mosque of Cordoba.

Retrieved May 24, 2009, from http://www.google.com.

Kingsbury, Alex. (2007). Legacy of Islam and Christianity. U.S. News & World Report.

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