RUINS OF HARRAN.
into a Mohammedan place of worship by the Saracens, and this idea is borne out by the modern name of Jamaa-el-Ahmar, or the Red Mosque, by which the Arabs still designate it. It is of an oblong form, and is built east and west, with three parallel walls running the entire length of the interior and dividing it into four unequal aisles. The centre of the eastern wall, where the altar may be supposed to have stood, is ornamented with two Corinthian pillars, and the partition walls are pierced with arches supported here and there with columns of the same order. In the north-east angle is a square tower about sixty feet high, the lower part built of stone, and the upper of brick, which I imagine to have been once a belfry, and then a minaret. The tower is visible from the castle at Urfah, and from many miles distant in the desert south of Harrân. In the northern aisle is a circular fountain, which there can be no doubt was introduced for religious ablutions by the Mohammedans when the building was used as a mosque. The same addition has been made to the old church in Urfah, which is now the Oloor Jamesi, as has been already noticed.
Judging from the foundations still extant the city wall was about three miles in extent, and circular in form. It appears also to have been defended in its weaker points by a deep fosse, which is now partly filled up. Just outside the wall to the south-west is the modern Mussulman shrine called Ziyaret Sheikh Yahya (John); but the Christians have a tradition that the grave of Terah, Abraham's father, exists within its precincts.
