Arab mosques usually have a square or rectangular layout with a courtyard in the middle. The first mosques had flat roofs on top of the prayer halls. Later on Islamic architecture focused on domes and arched entrances. The Ottomans introduced mosques with a central dome over the prayer hall in the 15th century.

A common feature of many mosques is a minaret, a tall thin tower that is usually located at one of the corners. They were designed to make mosques as big as Christian churches, with their bell towers. From the minaret, a muezzin announces praying time to worshippers.

The prayer hall normally does not have any benches or chairs. Worshippers pray in rows facing Mecca. There are no statues or pictures on the walls. Some mosques show verses of the Koran on the walls to assist worshippers. Many prayer halls have columns that uphold the roof. Every mosque has a mihrab, a niche in the wall that points to Mecca. From a pulpit, or minbar, the religious leader of the mosque, the imam, delivers his speech.

In the course of time, mosques became bigger and attained other functions. Today there are rooms for social gatherings, health clinics, libraries or gymnasiums.



Prayer hall of the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem with worshipers facing the mihrab
Aseel zm, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons



Words

  • announce = to officially say something
  • arched entrance = a large door with a curved top
  • assist = help
  • attain = receive , get
  • bench = long seats for people to sit on
  • century = a period of a hundred years
  • column = tall stone used to hold up the roof of a building
  • course of time = as time went on
  • courtyard = open space in the middle of a large building
  • deliver = here: give
  • dome = round roof on a building
  • face = when your head looks into a certain direction
  • focus = concentrate on
  • gymnasium = special building or room where you can do physical exercise
  • introduce = here: to start building
  • layout = form, shape
  • library = place where you can borrow books for a certain time
  • pray = to say words to god
  • pulpit = raised structure in a church or a mosque where the religious leader speaks to the people
  • niche = a small place in a wall where you can put something
  • Ottomans = people who lived in a large empire with its centre in Turkey; it consisted of large parts of the Middle East, Northern Africa and the southeastern part of Europe; it started in the 13th century and lasted until World War I
  • row = line
  • rectangular = shape with four straight sides, two of which are longer than the other two
  • social gathering = people getting together to meet and talk
  • verse = line of a poem or a piece of writing
  • worshipper = person who prays and shows respect and love for a god