The Al-Safarjalani Mosque

An Ottoman mosque in the eastern half of the Old City, on the stretch of Straight Street that runs to Bab Sharqi. It was built in 1699 and the sources also give it a second name, the Qari Mosque. The building as a whole is modest. What stops you is the minaret.

Getting there

Enter at Bab Sharqi and walk west along Straight Street. The mosque stands right beside Maktab Anbar, so if you are looking for that mansion you arrive at the same corner. This is where the Christian quarters begin; the lanes are narrow and the minaret is the only marker above the roofs.

What to see

The octagonal minaret is one of the easiest places in Damascus to read the black-and-white stonework known as ablaq. Along the shaft the bands turn into zigzags and rows of diamonds, and the pattern changes from one course to the next — no motif is repeated twice. Below the gallery runs a course of muqarnas; the gallery parapet is stone cut through like a lattice, and a wooden eave covers it. Above the eave the zigzag starts again and ends in a bulbous top with a copper crescent.

What most people miss

Look at the minaret from two distances, not one. From directly beneath it the wooden eave hides the upper shaft, and you see only the muqarnas and the parapet. Cross to the far end of the lane and the whole shaft appears, with the zigzag band above it and the crescent.

How long it takes

Fifteen minutes. The mosque is small and shares a corner with Maktab Anbar, so the two work as a single stop.