Confronting Mosques And Russian Churches Architecture

«Великая Мечеть Джумейры (Jumeira Grand Mosque)» на Яндекс.Фотках

In one of my previous posts about the architecture of the Russian churches ( look here Russian Churches Of XII Century , The Golden Ring of Russia , What is Kizhi? ) Footiam wrote that these churches are similar to the mosques, if without cross. Not that I did not see the mosques in my life, but I've never looked on them from this point of view. So, I decided to control this affirmation and to tell you about the results here.

The Jumeirah Grand Mosque of Dubai (over here) is a splendid example of the modern antique architecture, I think. I could not find the year when this mosque was build, unfortunatelly. What is very interesting to notice, you can visit it, if you are in this biggest city of SA. I thought, every mosque is closed for visitors, even if it is one of the most touristic attractions of the city.

The next photo is the real antiquity -Samarkand. I never was in this city but my father told us about it with great delight about it, it's mosques and medrese.


«Самарканд» на Яндекс.Фотках

If you confront the architecture of these buildings and those of Russian churches in the posts I just listed, you will notice they have really some common traits. We can find different explanations of this peculiarities. Probably it's the common karma of all us, human beings. We like cupola, round forms generally. Cupola, I think, represents the vault of heaven for the religions, the image of the sky over our heads.

And this could allow to the architects and governors to transform one very important temple of Christentum, H.Sophia, Constantinople/ Istanbul in a mosque.