01First: this is a mosque
Before it is a monument on the World Heritage List, it is a mosque where people pray five times a day. A visitor is a guest. What follows is not a list of conditions — it is what people do here.
02What is expected of you
- Shoes
- Removed before entering the prayer hall. The courtyard is different.
- Dress
- Shoulders and knees covered, for men and women; women cover the hair.
- Prayer times
- Five a day, shifting with the sun from one day to the next. The building fills at each one.
- Friday
- Friday midday is the busiest hour of the week, and not the hour to arrive as a visitor.
- In the prayer hall
- Do not cross between someone praying and the qibla.
- Photography
- Ask before photographing people. The building itself is another matter — see below.
- The courtyard
- The part you can always stand in, and the finest thing in the mosque anyway.
03Today's times
Five prayers a day, shifting with the sun. The mosque's own call to prayer governs.
- Fajr
- —
- Sunrise
- —
- Dhuhr
- —
- Asr
- —
- Maghrib
- —
- Isha
- —
Times calculated by the Muslim World League method. The mosque's own call to prayer governs.
04What we do not yet know
The mosque is reopening, and some of what concerns visitors has not been announced. We publish the empty field rather than guess.
05Where it is
At the heart of the Ancient City of Aleppo, west of the Citadel, with the souks around it. It is walkable from the Citadel and from most of the Old City gates.
Open in maps36°11'58"N, 37°09'24"E
