Its famous minaret fell in 2013, and has since been rebuilt, largely from its own stones.
This is the Great Umayyad Mosque of Aleppo, in Syria. Work began in the year 715, under the caliph al-Walid, and his successor, Sulayman, finished it. Sources differ on who ordered the first building.
The site had been a Hellenistic marketplace, and later the garden of a cathedral.
Tradition says a shrine inside holds the prophet Zakariyya, peace be upon him, the father of Yahya.
Between 1090 and 1094, the Seljuks added a square minaret, about forty-five metres tall.
In 1159, Nur al-Din restored the mosque after a great fire. In 1260, and again in 1281, Mongol armies razed and burned it, and each time it was rebuilt.
A vast courtyard, paved in dark and pale stone, opens in front of the prayer hall, where pointed arches rest on broad square piers.
In 1986, the Old City of Aleppo, with this mosque at its heart, became a World Heritage site.
In 2012, the fighting for the city reached the mosque and badly damaged it. In April 2013, the minaret collapsed. Accounts differ on who was responsible.
Restoration began in 2017. Masons sorted the surviving stones and reused as many as they could. According to news reports, the mosque opened for Ramadan prayers in March 2025, and fully reopened on 8 October 2026, after more than a decade.
The site of the Great Mosque was once the agora of the Hellenistic period, which later became the garden for the Cathedral of Saint Helena during the Christian era of Roman rule in Syria.
The mosque was built on land that was formerly used as the Cathedral cemetery. The church itself was left and the area became a sacred place for both religions. According to the later traditions, the construction of the earliest mosque on the site was commenced by the Umayyad caliph al-Walid I in 715 and was finished by his successor Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik in 717. Architectural historian K. A. C. Creswell has attributed its construction solely to the latter, quoting 13th century Aleppine historian Ibn al-Adim who wrote Sulayman's intent was "to make it equal to the work of his brother al-Walid in the Great Mosque at Damascus". Another tradition claims al-Walid founded the mosque using materials from the so-called "Church of Cyrrus".
However, architectural historian Jere L. Bacharach noted that the most likely patron of the mosque was Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik, a brother of al-Walid and Sulayman who was the governor of the local province (Jund Qinnasrin) sometime prior to 710 until at least the early period of Sulayman's rule. Accordingly, this would explain the belief that the mosque's construction took place during the reign of both caliphs. Moreover, Maslamah's governorship of Qinnasrin was largely ignored by the early Arabic historians, who focused their attention on his campaigns against the Byzantine Empire and the Armenians, and his governorship over the provinces of Iraq, Iranian Azerbaijan, Upper Mesopotamia and Armenia. Bacharach further states that Maslamah's commissioning of a large congregational mosque in Aleppo, a major base from which to attack the Byzantines, would have "been appropriate, if not necessary".
Renovation
In the second half of the 11th century, the Mirdasids controlled Aleppo and built a single-domed fountain in the mosque's courtyard. At the northwest corner of the mosque, the 45-meter high minaret was built by the Shi'a Muslim qadi (Islamic chief judge) of Aleppo, Abu'l Hasan Muhammad in 1090, during the reign of Seljuk governor Aq Sunqur al-Hajib. Its construction was finished in 1094 during Tutush's rule. The architect of the project was Hasan ibn Mufarraj al-Sarmini.
The mosque was restored and expanded by the Zengid sultan Nur al-Din in 1159 after a great fire that had destroyed the earlier Umayyad structure; In 1260, the mosque was razed by the Mongols. In 1281, the mosque was burned again by the Mongols, and the minbar ("preacher's pulpit") was taken by the Armenians of Sis, according to al-Mufaddal.
The Mamluks (1260–1516) made repairs and alterations. Carved Kufic and naskhi inscriptions decorated the entire minaret along with alternate bands of stylized ornaments in patterns and muqarnas. Sultan Qalawun replaced the burnt out mihrab (niche indicating the qibla, or direction to Mecca) in 1285. Later, Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad (1293–1341) had the new minbar constructed during his reign.
The courtyard and minaret of the mosque were renovated in 2003.
Syrian Civil War
Architecture and design
Courtyard
The Great Mosque contains a number of architectural similarities to the Great Mosque of Damascus, including a hypostyle plan with large marbled courtyard surrounded by porticoes. The vast courtyard connects to different areas of the mosque, positioned behind the colonnaded arcade. The courtyard is well known for its alternating black and white stone floor that forms intricate geometric arrangements. Two ablutions fountains, both of which are roofed. The courtyard also has an open prayer estrade and a sundial.
Interior
The ḥaram ("sanctuary") consists of the main prayer hall to the courtyard's south, which contains the primary elements of the mosque: the shrine of Zechariah, a 15th-century minbar ("pulpit"), and an elaborately carved miḥrāb ("niche"). Although the central entrance contains an inscription attributing its construction to Ottoman sultan Murad III, it was built by the Mamluks. The hall has three naves, all lined with 18 quadrangular columns with cross-vaults. This large prayer hall originally had a basic straight rooftop with a central qubbah (dome, but during Mamluk rule was replaced with an intricate cross-vaulted system with arches and a small dome over the arcades. The mihrab is deep and round and Zechariah's supposed tomb is to its left along the southern wall.
There are three other halls that abut the remaining sides of the courtyard. The eastern and northern halls each have two naves, while the western hall has one. The latter is mostly of modern construction. The east hall dates to the period of Malik Shah (1072–1092) and the north hall was renovated during Mamluk sultan Barquq's reign (1382–1399), but largely maintained its original 11th century character.
Minaret
The minaret's shaft, which protruded out of the flat roof of one of the halls, consisted of five levels with a crowning top encircled with a veranda. A muqarnas-style cornice divided the veranda top from the shaft. The structure was largely built of fine ashlar. The minaret was heavily decorated in relief ornament, more so than any other Islamic-era structure in Aleppo with the exception of the Shu'aybiyah Madrasa. Its stories contained cusped arches and continuous mouldings. The masonry of the minaret varied throughout, with a mix of light and heavy usage of toothed tools, short, long, vertical and horizontal strokes, fine and rough finishes, and small and large stones.
According to E.J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam, the minaret was "quite unique in the whole of Muslim architecture". Archaeologist Ernst Herzfeld described the architectural style of the minaret as being "the product of Mediterranean civilization," writing that its four façades carried elements of Gothic architecture. Meanwhile, anthropologist Yasser Tabbaa stated the mosque was a continuation of the ancient North Syrian churches and "an entirely localized phenomenon, centered mainly in the region between Aleppo and Edessa". The decoration of the minaret demonstrates a level of continuity with pre-Islamic Syrian architecture.
Maqsurah
The History, Architecture and later sections are adapted from the Wikipedia article “Great Mosque of Aleppo”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the full article. Text has been shortened.
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