The Ar-Rahman Mosque, Aleppo

A large contemporary mosque in the western half of Aleppo, at the north end of King Faisal Street. It has nothing in common with the stone buildings of the Old City: work began in 1978, the mosque opened in 1994, and the design sets the forms of early Islamic architecture into modern construction. On this side of the city it is the silhouette you pick out from furthest away.

Getting there

The mosque stands where King Faisal Street meets the Al-Suryan quarter. The Citadel and the Old City are about three kilometres east — too far to walk, so take a taxi or a service minibus. Coming up the street you can already see the minarets, and nobody has to give you the address.

How long it takes

Half an hour. This is not a museum but a working mosque; looking at it from the street and then stepping into the prayer hall to see the dome fits comfortably into that.

What to see

There are six minarets. Two of them stand 75 metres tall and four are shorter, and every shaft is square in section. The square shaft is not an accident — it is the form of the early Umayyad minaret, and the whole design of the mosque looks back to that period. A single dome sits at the centre: banded on the outside in copper tones, its base ringed by a crown of pointed arches.

What most people miss

The large stone panels on the outer walls. From a distance they read as abstract pattern. Close up you can see that each panel is cut in the shape of a page of the Quran and carries verses from Surat ar-Rahman. That is where the mosque takes its name.