March 20, 2007

Craft at its finest

Taken of a mosque in Alexandria, Egypt on my last trip in January 2007.

14 comments:

Destitute Rebel said...

What a beautiful picture, mosques around the world have their own unique style of architecture, with every region having something different and beautiful. Amazing angle well taken.

nuh ibn zbigniew gondek said...

As salaam alaikum.

Jazakallahu khairn for sharing this most beautiful picture. For some reason it makes me think of the day of assemble.

I'll have to think about it.

Wa salaama,

nuh ibn

Unknown said...

Beautiful capture :)

The intricate detail of mosques really amazes me, such fine workmanship, truly delightful a view :)

clayfuture said...

Wow beautiful!!

Diligent Candy said...

Looks stunning...

cam.el.chat said...

Amazing!
Mosques are so beautiful and you captured this so well in this picture.
By the way, Hi and I am half Swedish/Half Iranian! ;-)

Cool blog.

BuJ said...

Beautiful mosque! But Iranian mosques are nicer as they have more blue!

Unknown said...

BuJ: Good point about those shades of blue in Iranian mosques. Any significance for the blues?

BuJ said...

AWOS.. not sure why.. maybe it's gotta do with pre-islamic ties.. I think the zorostians have an affinity with blue.. also blue was associated with royalty.. will investigate!

Shaykhspeara Sha'ira said...

Thank you guys,

Nuh ibn, Interesting thought, do elaborate once you have thought about it :)

Awos and buj, the colour blue in ancient history was thought of as the color of the sky and of heavenly peace. It's also a cooling colour which could explain why it's used in countries with a lot of sun hours (Mid-east, Iran). And of course blue has the obvious, noble sense to it. There is also a mosque named the blue mosque in Turkey. Many mosques in the desert are painted blue in Egypt so it is not entirely Iranian as such. Muslims when building mosques in different parts of teh world have incorporated colour and shapes, mainly green and blue for both their religious and ancient meanings. So it is a combination of both. Very fascinating since studies of colour have shown that they do have an effect on us, and green has a very good effect upon us and our heart where as blue in itself too carries good qualities for the state of human beings. I could go on and on but I reckon that will suffice.

Hey Camel Chat, welcome :)

Optimistic Guard said...

Cool mosque. I just love the mosques in UAE.

Shaykhspeara Sha'ira said...

The UAE mosques are beautiful indeed :)

Umar said...

oh my... I'm a big sucker for photos like these :D

Shaykhspeara Sha'ira said...

Well Mr photographer, I am still waiting for you to join us at Global Themes! :)