This photograph, the oldest ever taken of the Great Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, reveals the scale of the work commissioned by Caliph al-Walid I. With its axial minaret and high dome at the crossing of the aisles in the prayer hall, the mosque was intended to proclaim the presence of Islam in the city. This sovereignty was later underscored by the addition of two more minarets and the raising of the dome and the first minaret.

Philibert-Joseph Girault de Prangey, 1843