Friday mosque: a congregational mosque for public prayer, especially on Fridays

A Friday mosque having a sahn for large congregations, dating from the 7th to the 11th centuries

A Muslim theological school arranged around a courtyard and attached to a mosque, found from the 11th century on in Egypt, Anatolia, and Persia

The large open square of a city, used as a marketplace or parade ground, esp. in India

A court or series of courts serving to shelter a mosque from immediate contact with secular buildings

A pulpit in a mosque, recalling the three steps from which Muhammad addressed his followers and from which the imam delivers his sermons

The wall in a mosque in which the mihrab is set, oriented to Mecca

A niche or decorative panel in a mosque designating the qibla

A city in Saudi Arabia, birthplace of Muhammad and spiritual center of Islam

A small, cubical stone building in the courtyard of the Great Mosque at Mecca containing a sacred black stone and regarded by Muslims as the House of God, the objective of their pilgrimages, and the point toward which they turn in praying

An inn in the Near East for the overnight accommodation of caravans, usually having a large courtyard enclosed by a solid wall and entered through an imposing gateway

A masonry mass having a rectangular base and four stepped and sloping faces culminating in a single apex, used in ancient Egypt and pre-Columbian Central America as a tomb or a platform for a temple

A rectangular, strongly framed panel that overhangs a talud

In Mesoamerican architecture, an outer wall that slopes inward as it rises. This first appeared c. 800 BCE at the Olmec site of La Venta, in Tabasco state, Mexico.

A lofty, slender tower attached to a mosque, having stairs leading up to one or more projecting balconies from which the muezzin calls the Muslim people to prayer

A large vaulted portal opening onto the central courtyard of a mosque

The central courtyard of a mosque

An arcaded hall of a mosque

Of or pertaining to the law, religion, or civilization of Islam; a believer in Islam

Arab prophet and founder of Islam, 570 to 632 CE

The sacred text of Islam, revered as the revelations made by Allah to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel and accepted as the foundation of Islamic law, religion, culture, and politics

A bulbous ribbed dome, found esp. in Islamic architecture

A system of decoration in Islamic architecture, formed by the intricate corbeling of brackets, squinches, and inverted pyramids; sometimes wrought in stone but more often in plaster. Also called honeycomb work, muqarnas.

Corbeling having the general form of a pendentive, commonly found in Moorish architecture

An openwork screen or partition enclosing an area for prayer or a tomb in a mosque

The dominant religion of India, based on the religion of the original Aryan settlers as expounded and evolved in the Vedas, having a diverse body of philosophy and cultural practices, many popular cults, and a large pantheon symbolizing a supreme being of many forms and natures

A religion based on the Four Noble Truths, originated in India by Gautama Buddha and later spreading to China, Burma, Japan, Tibet, and parts of Southeast Asia

The officially recognized gods of a people

The oldest sacred writings of Hinduism, composed between 1500 and 800 BCE, incorporating four collections of humns, prayers, and liturgical formulas

A freestanding memorial pillar in Indian architecture, bearing carved inscriptions, religious emblems, or a statue

A Buddhist memorial mound erected to enshrine a relic of Buddha and to commemorate some event or mark a sacred spot

A monolithic stamba, as distinguished from one built up of stone courses

A Buddhist monastery in Indian architecture often excavated from solid rock, consisting of a central pillared chamber surrounded by a verandah onto which open small sleeping cells. Adjacent to this cloister was a courtyard containing the main stupa.

A Buddhist in India, usually carved out of solid rock on a hillside, having the form of an aisled basilica with a stupa at one end

A Buddhist monastery or temple in Thailand or Cambodia

A Tibetan Buddhist monastery or nunnery laid out in the form of a mandala, with a central prayer hall lined with benches and attached living accommodations for monks or nuns

A phallus, the symbol of the god Shiva in Hindu architecture

Womb chamber: the dark, innermost sanctuary of a Hindu temple where the statue of the deity is placed

A Hindu or Buddhist diagram of the cosmos, characterized b a concentric configuration of geometric shapes and often used to guide the design of Indian temple plans

A Hindu temple

A Hindu temple cut out of solid rock to resemble a chariot

The sanctuary of a Hindu temple in which a deity is enshrined

The bulbous stone finial of a sikhara

A tower of a Hindu temple, usually tapered convexly and capped by an amalaka

A large, porch-like hall leading to a Hindu temple and used for religious dancing and music

A monumental, usually ornate gateway tower to a Hindu temple enclosure, esp. in southern India

A broad flight of steps descending to a river in India, especially a river used as a sacred bathing site