My favorite painting--mosque

Mosque

A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The Masjid Quba is the first mosque in Islam’s history. A lot of mosques have developed significantly since Quba mosque. The mosque also can be a center for information, education, and dispute settlement. The imam will lead the prayer in the mosque. The basic elements of a mosque are a mimbar, a pulpit, a maqsura, a dome, kibla walls, semidomes, weight towers, pier, and arch. These materials built the whole mosque. The whole mosque can be separate in three parts, which is courtyard, prayer hall, and minaret. 

The courtyard is like the dinging hall nowadays. The courtyard is a square, and there is a fountain in the middle of the courtyard. Sadirvans are necessary for ablutions before prayer. Also, they can clean their feet, hand, and face after prayer. The minarets will be built on four sides of the courtyard, and all the walls are holding by the arcades and porticos. On each side of the wall, there is a door in the middle of the wall except the the wall connect to the prayer hall. The top of the door is crooked, and the bottom of it is square. The whole elements in the courtyard should connect to the middle of the prayer hall. 

The prayer hall is the most important part of the mosque. The most important requirements  which was the kibla wall. It should face the  MECCA. At floor level in the center of the kibla wall was the mihrab. It’s a niche symbolizing the entrance to paradise. The kibla wall was placed perpendicular to the kibla, and the mihrab stood right on top of it. On the opposite side of the mihrab was the portal which is an entrance to the prayer hall. Next to the kibla walls, there are eight piers to hold the center of the prayer hall. On the eight piers, there are eight weight towers to separate the weights. Between each towers, there are also eight arches to hold the dome. The last part of the mosque are minarets. Different mosques have different number of minarets. At least every mosque will have one minaret, and the Quba Mosque has four minarets to call people every day for five times to pray.