For more than 3000 years before umayyaden dynasty was the ground of Damascus mosque a sacred ground for various groups. Damascus is known to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. There is no knowledge about how Damascus was in the third millennium BC. The documented history of the city starts in the second millennium BC, in the Amorite period, when Damascus became the capital of a small Aramaean principality. The spot where the mosque now stands was a temple of Hadad in the Aramaean era. They built the temple in 1000 BC to God Hadad Ramman, the god of thunderstorm and rain. The Aramaean presence was attested by the discovery of a sphinx, excavated in the north-east corner of mosque.
A huge Temple of Jupiter was built over the Aramean Temple by the Romans in the 1st century AD. The temple was made on a raised rectangular platform with square corners on all four sides. With the break-up of the Roman Empire in 395 AD, Syria became a part of the eastern province of the Byzantine Empire. It was during the 4th century that the temple became a church. The temple was broken and a church was built and was dedicated to John the Baptist. The Muslim took over the Damascus in 636. However, it did not affect the church. Under the Umayyad caliph Al-Walid I the church was demolished and between 706 and 715 the current mosque built in its place. The building today is shared by both the Christians and Muslim Pilgrims.
(Temple of Jupiter: Just in front of the Mausoleum of Saladin is a small archaeological garden, where a few of the columns and some masonry from the Roman Temple of Jupiter, which was later replaced by the Umayyad Mosque, have been preserved. The western gateway to the temple can also be seen at the entrance to Souq al-Hamidiyya.)
(A sphinx is a mythological creature that is depicted as a recumbent feline with a human head. It has its origins in sculpted figures of lionesses with female human. The sphinx is also used to represent some gods with the use of heads other than human)
A huge Temple of Jupiter was built over the Aramean Temple by the Romans in the 1st century AD. The temple was made on a raised rectangular platform with square corners on all four sides. With the break-up of the Roman Empire in 395 AD, Syria became a part of the eastern province of the Byzantine Empire. It was during the 4th century that the temple became a church. The temple was broken and a church was built and was dedicated to John the Baptist. The Muslim took over the Damascus in 636. However, it did not affect the church. Under the Umayyad caliph Al-Walid I the church was demolished and between 706 and 715 the current mosque built in its place. The building today is shared by both the Christians and Muslim Pilgrims.
(Temple of Jupiter: Just in front of the Mausoleum of Saladin is a small archaeological garden, where a few of the columns and some masonry from the Roman Temple of Jupiter, which was later replaced by the Umayyad Mosque, have been preserved. The western gateway to the temple can also be seen at the entrance to Souq al-Hamidiyya.)
(A sphinx is a mythological creature that is depicted as a recumbent feline with a human head. It has its origins in sculpted figures of lionesses with female human. The sphinx is also used to represent some gods with the use of heads other than human)
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