The restoration of the Great Umayyad Mosque in the city of Aleppo is proceeding in a careful and meticulous way to include every stone in it that was touched by the hand of terrorism, which tried to obliterate the features of this archaeological civilizational edifice that withstood the most powerful earthquakes throughout the stages since its construction.
The minaret of the mosque, which is an ancient masterpiece in its architectural style, was subjected to great damage and its stones collapsed as a result of its intended and systematic detonation by the terrorists, so that the national hands returned to collect, arrange and restore them in preparation for rebuilding them again.
In order to find out about the restoration operations in the Umayyad Mosque with all its stone and wood components, SANA’s camera toured the mosque to closely examine the restoration processes and met Dr. Sakhr Alabi, professor at the Faculty of Architecture at Aleppo University, director of the mosque’s maintenance and restoration project, who said: “Since the liberation of Aleppo from terrorism, I have entered the specialized workshops To the mosque, and the situation was deplorable, as it was subjected to systematic destruction at the hands of terrorist groups, and there were rubble and barricades, and this required great work to remove the rubble and remove the berms.
And Olabi added: “At the beginning of the work, we were alerted to the dangers threatening the pillars of the mosque, which were damaged by the shells, and they had to be strengthened, and we moved to inspect the site of the minaret, which turned into a hill of rubble after it was detonated by the terrorists. This required a plan to document and classify the stones. An identity and number for each stone was developed, which took a long time to document, and a sophisticated device was used to study and know the resistance of these stones and to what extent they can be relied upon in rebuilding.
Olabi points out that the discovery was made on the eastern side of the mosque, adjacent to and interfering with the markets of the old city, and it is destroyed, and work is being done to restore it in parallel with the rehabilitation of the minaret, in addition to restoring the roof and roof of the mosque, which was hit by the missiles. The wooden manger in a barbaric manner, and work is being done to restore it through two wood workshops, one for the manufacture of all types of wooden mangroves, relying on old books and references to document the restoration processes, and another workshop for the manufacture and restoration of stone.
Albi explains that the mosque is characterized by its minaret and the courtyard, which is the floor of the mosque, which is built with harmonious geometric shapes, but today it is covered by minaret stones to document them. Its decoration differs from the other, and this is based on the philosophy of Islamic art in terms of non-repetition, but rather artistic harmony with each other to form an integrated painting.
Olabi shows that the mosque was restored between 1999 and 2005 and all its elements were documented, which helped us in the current restoration operations, but the stones were harmed, bullets and shells were hit as a result of terrorism, and this required a great time and effort to reach an appropriate mixture to fill these holes and try it within a month and know their hardness, all of which led to Good results were achieved and applied to the external interface of the collector.
Engineer Anas Sadiq from the Military Construction Corporation in Aleppo, who is supervising the implementation of the restoration works, shows that the foundation’s workshops entered the mosque after its liberation from terrorist groups and worked to remove the rubble and carry out the necessary restoration work for some of the domes, columns and gaps in the walls. The most important thing is to sort the stones of the minaret according to certain studies, restore and coordinate them, and secure a sophisticated device to measure the durability of the stone and its resistance to re-install it in the same site under the supervision of the study and archaeological authority.
Eng. Tamim Qasmo, a member of the Umayyad Mosque’s Execution Committee, presented a historical overview of the mosque, explaining that its construction dates back to the late first century AH 97 AH and was built by Suleiman bin Abdul-Malik, who was the emir of Aleppo and wanted to emulate the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, pointing out that the mosque had been subjected to vandalism several times due to the fact that Aleppo is located on the borders of the Arab state with the Byzantine state, and each time it was rebuilt and restored.
Qasmo talked about the main components of the mosque, as it consists of a tribal court, 3 corridors, an inner courtyard, and an ancient minaret. It is older and is located on the columns of the northern portico. As for the horizontal sundial, which is located on a small column in the courtyard of the mosque, it is developed and closer to an astrolabe. The mosque is distinguished by its minaret. It is 950 years old and was built in the Seljuk period. It is unique in its architectural style and is considered a school in construction.
SANA’s camera followed the restoration work of the wooden doors. Basil Kitoua spoke about the 12 wooden arches that are being implemented in the form of arabesque panels interwoven with wood and are installed according to carefully studied plans without the use of nails. These panels are prepared to be installed above the tribal doors, using oak and walnut wood.
The worker Husam Zanabili explained that he is digging around the damaged columns and installing the bases for the beams that are implanted near the column to rehabilitate it.
As for the sculptor Abdel Gayar Azzouz, he explained that he performs the restoration of stones and replaces them with similar stones in case they are damaged using a hammer called Al-Shahouta. Huge crane erected specifically for construction and stone transporting.
The restoration of the Umayyad Mosque continues as a beehive tirelessly and with utmost precision and perfection, carried out by patriotic hands keen to restore this civilized edifice to its previous condition.
Qusai Razzouk