Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/524

508 SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. Part III. two caliphs, though frequently repaired, and in some parts probabl}^ altered by subsequent sovereigns of Egypt. In its present state it maybe considered as a fair specimen of the form which mosques took when they had quite emancipated themselves from the Christian models, or rather when the court before the narthex of the Christian church had absorbed the basilica, so as to become itself the principal part of the building, the church part being spread out into a mere deep colonnade, and its three apsidal altars modified into niches pointing towards the sacred Mecca, 959. Mosque of Amrou, Old Cairo. (From Coste's " Architecture Arabe.") Scale 100 ft. to 1 in. As will be seen from the plan (Woodcut No. 959), it is nearly square (390 ft. by 357), and consists of a courtyard, 255 ft. square, surrounded on all sides by porticoes, supported by 245 columns taken from older edifices of the Romans and Byzantines. These were joined together by brick arches of circular form,i tied at their springing by wooden beams, as in the Aksah, and covered by a wooden roof. All ' M. Coste makes all these arches j are all circular; the truth being that pointed. M. de Prangey states that they | they are partly one, partly the other.