Al-Qaiqan Mosque, Aleppo

One of the smallest historic mosques inside the walls of Aleppo, and probably the one with the strangest walls. From outside the building is plain; the stones are the point. Columns taken from much older buildings were sawn across and laid into the masonry, so their round cross-sections face the street. The name comes from the Arabic word for crow.

Getting there

100 metres north of Bab Antakya, the western gate into the walled city. Once through the gate, turn left before the souq and walk up the slope. The mosque stands on a street corner a few steps above the pavement, its Arabic name on a white plaque fixed to the wall. This is the al-Jalloum quarter, the same slope as the Behramiyah Mosque.

How long it takes

20 minutes. There is a single prayer hall, and most of that time goes on the outside walls rather than the interior. Arrive at prayer time and you may have to wait for the door.

What to see

Two black basalt columns flank the door. They are centuries older than the mosque; the capitals are carved, the shafts worn smooth by hands. Above them a pointed arch is built in alternating courses of black and white stone. Then look at the walls. On every face, at every height, dozens of round stone bosses push out of the masonry. Each one is an ancient column sawn across. They are building material, not ornament — whoever raised this mosque used what the ruins nearby had left.

How old the building is

The site is said to have carried a Hittite temple in antiquity, and the stones in the wall support the claim, though the building itself is far younger. Its use as a mosque is traced back to the 12th century, and it took its present shape under the Mamluks, the sultanate that ruled Syria and Egypt in the later Middle Ages. It was enlarged in 1965 and fully restored in 1996, which is why the interior looks tidier than the outside promises.

What not to miss

On the south wall, at eye level, a dark block sits framed in mortar. The signs cut into it are Anatolian hieroglyphs of the 13th century BC — roughly 2000 years older than the mosque around them. The inscription names Telipinu and Talmi-Sharruma, kings of Aleppo and descendants of the Hittite king Suppiluliuma I. Most visitors photograph the doorway and leave.