1000 Monuments of Genius - Christopher E.M. Pearson The Book

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in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II, who is mentioned in the Bible. This fortified gateway, some 12 metres high, is constructed of mud bricks. It has a veneer of fired and glazed ceramics featuring many bas-relief images of stylised lions, bulls and mythological creatures; the latter, with their scaly bodies, snake heads, scorpion tails, front legs of a cat and rear legs of a bird, are associated with the god Marduk, to whom the city’s great ziggurat temple – likely the inspiration for the Tower of Babel – was dedicated. Named for the Babylonian goddess of love and war, the Ishtar Gate originally guarded the entrance to the main processional way of Babylon, some 800 metres long, which ran past the famous Hanging Gardens. Babylon was later conquered and largely destroyed by the Persians. The Ishtar Gate was discovered during German archaeological campaigns from 1899–1917 and reconstructed in Berlin. Partly restored under the regime of Saddam Hussein, the site of Babylon in modern-day Iraq has since been damaged once again under the American occupation.

      14. Gymnasium, Cyrene, 5th century BCE and later (Libya)

      15. The Treasury, Petra, c. 60 BCE (Jordan)

      16. City of Timgad, founded c. 10 °CE (Algeria)

      17. Temple of Bel, Palmyra, 32 CE (Syria)

      18. Temple of Bacchus, Baalbek, c. 15 °CE (Lebanon)

      19. Temple of Jupiter Heliopolitan, Baalbek, c. 20 °CE (Lebanon)

      20. City of Leptis Magna, 2nd-4th century CE (Libya)

      21. City of Sabratha, 2nd-4th century CE (Libya)

      22. Palace of Ctesiphon, near Baghdad, c. 6th century (Iraq)

      23. Nubian pyramids at Meroë, Meroë, 300 BCE-30 °CE (Sudan)

      24. Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, begun c. 325 with many later rebuildings (Israel)

      This famous church, the ultimate goal of Crusader zeal, has been many times destroyed and rebuilt. Since it is supposed to have been erected on the actual site of Jesus’ Passion and Resurrection, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is of central importance to Christianity: among several other holy areas which are reputed to be contained within its walls is the Hill of Calvary, where the Crucifixion took place, as well as the rock-cut tomb of Christ. In its original form, a large rotunda covered the latter site, a feature that was often imitated in later European churches. The location of the building is said to have been determined by the Empress Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine, who came to the Holy Land and miraculously discovered the True Cross lying discarded in a pile of rubbish. The present building is a patchwork of different styles and historical periods, and the control of every square centimetre is fought over by a variety of Christian sects. For this reason, the keys to the Church have long been held by a prominent Muslim family of Jerusalem.

      25. Khirbat al-Mafjar palace complex, Jericho, 8th century (Palestine)

      26. Qasr Amra desert castle, c. 711–715 (Jordan)

      27. St. Catherine’s Monastery, Mount Sinai, 527–565 and later (Egypt)

      28. Arg-é Bam (Bam citadel), before the 2003 earthquake, Bam, 5th century BCE-1850 (Iran)

      29. Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem, c. 687–692 (Israel)

      Often incorrectly called a mosque, this very early Muslim shrine was erected by the rulers of the Umayyad Caliphate atop the rock from which Mohammed is said to have ascended to heaven. Its location is in fact one of the most fiercely disputed pieces of territory in the world, for it sits atop the rocky bluff, Mount Moriah, where Abraham is said to have offered his son Isaac to God, and where the great Jewish temple was erected by Solomon and later rebuilt by Herod, only to be destroyed by the Romans. The centralised form of the Dome of the Rock was inspired by early Christian churches, perhaps the rotunda of the nearby Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Its octagonal plan, generated by geometrical means, is covered by a double-shelled wooden dome set on a tall drum. The interior, with its rich mosaic decoration, has a double ambulatory to allow easy circulation for pilgrims. The shrine was re-covered in multicoloured tiles in the 17th century, and its resplendent gold leaf-covered dome stands as a familiar landmark in the troubled cityscape of Jerusalem.

      30. Al-Masjid al-Haram, Mecca, 7th century with later rebuildings (Saudi Arabia)

      31. Great Mosque, Córdoba, begun in 785–786 (Spain)

      The Mezquita of Córdoba is one of the oldest mosques in existence, and bears eloquent witness to the early Islamic presence on the Iberian Peninsula. It was one of the first buildings erected in Spain by the Umayyad dynasty, which had been uprooted from its former stronghold in Damascus. Built over a 7th-century Visigothic church, the mosque was begun by Emir Abd ar-Rahman I. It was originally connected to the Caliph’s palace by a raised walkway. At the time of its construction, this was the second-largest mosque in the world. Fronted by an open courtyard, the huge prayer hall is supported by a forest of columns in various stones, many taken from older Roman buildings. These support polychromatic double arches, which are horseshoe-shaped below and semicircular above; this was a structural innovation that helped to carry the high ceiling. Elsewhere in the building are complex vaulted and ribbed domes, likely showing the influence of Persian architecture. The mosque has an unorthodox orientation, with the mihrab facing south. After the Spanish reconquest of Córdoba in 1236, the mosque was turned into a Catholic church.

      32. Ummayad Mosque, Damascus, 706–715 (Syria)

      33. Mosque of Al Mutawakkil (Great Mosque of Samarra), Samarra, 847–851 (Iraq)

      34. Al Azhar Mosque, Cairo, 970–972 (Egypt)

      35. Mosque of Uqba, Kairouan, 670 (Tunisia)

      36. Al Hakim Mosque, Cairo, 990–1013 (Egypt)

      37. Kutubiya Mosque, Marrakesh, 1158 and later (Morocco)

      38. Friday Mosque, Isfahan, rebuilt after 1121–1122 (Iran)

      39. Al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem, rebuilt 1033 (Israel)

      40. Krak des chevaliers, Qalaat al Hosn, c. 1100–1200 (Syria)

      Greatest of the Crusader fortresses in the Holy Land, Krak des chevaliers, or the “fortress of the knights,” served as the headquarters of the Knights Hospitaller. T. E. Lawrence found it to be “perhaps the best preserved and most wholly admirable castle in the world.” One of several such strongholds that formed a huge defensive ring around the territory that had been conquered and controlled by the Crusaders, Krak des chevaliers was erected on top of an older Muslim fortress on a hill overlooking the main route

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