MASJID AL-AQSA:

Baitu'l Muqaddas (Jerusalem) houses one of the holiest Mosques, the Masjid al Aqsa-the Most Distant Mosque-and represents a place of greatest religious significance to Muslims all over the world. It is mentioned in the Holy Qur'an (17:1) as the blessed site where Prophet Muhammad (saws) was taken on a journey (Miraj)-in the night-to the heavens. According to Islamic teachings it is one of the three places to which it is desirable to undertake a journey (pilgrimage) for the purpose of Salaah (prayers). The Masjid al Aqsa was the first Qiblah (the direction to which Muslims faced when praying Salaah). This continued until 16 to 17 months after Hijrah, when Allah commanded in His wisdom, for the Muslims to face Makkah. Traditions also record the merits of performing the Hajj or Umrah from Masjid al-Aqsa where it is mentioned "whosoever starts his Hajj and Umrah from Masjid al-Aqsa, his wrong actions will be forgiven, both in the past and the future." And, "Paradise will be his reward." Originally built in 715 CE, the mosque was reconstructed and enlarged at least six times,

Today, the Mosque of Al-Aqsa is under Israeli occupation for thirty-seven years, all Muslims around the world pray for its liberation and for the freedom of their Palestinian brothers, who have become the soldiers at the front line of the battle to redeem Al-Aqsa.

DOME OF THE ROCK:

The Qubbat al-Saqarah or the Dome of the Rock was built by the ninth Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan between the years 681 and 691 CE over a rock (Saqarah), the spot where Prophet Muhammad (saws) was brought by night and ascended on his journey to Heavens accompanied by Archangel Jibreel (Gabriel). It is a holy place to Muslims. Basically unchanged from the past thirteen centuries, the Dome of the Rock remains one of the worlds most beautiful and enduring architectural treasures. The gold covered dome stretches twenty meters above the Noble Rock rising to a height of more than thirty-five meters above it with verses of the Holy Qur'an inscribed across the top in the dazzling tile work commissioned by the Caliph Sulaiman the Magnificent in 1520 CE. The place fell into the hands of the Crusaders in 1122 CE. They cut the Holy Rock into pieces and covered it with marble slabs and erected an altar above it after decorating the outer wall with frescoes. In 1187 CE Sultan Salah ad-Din won the city for Muslims and restored and regilded the dome removing the images carved on it. He dismantled the altar and the marble steps and exposed the bare rock to its original position. The Dome of the Rock is not a mosque, as it sometimes wrongly called, is but a station in the outer court of Masjid al-Aqsa.

PETRA:

Petra is the name of an ancient city in Jordan, west of the city of Maan in the southern part of the country. Rediscovered by J.L Burckhardt in 1812, it is situated amongst the red sandstone hills south of the Dead Sea. The rose-red city of Petra-half as old as time- was once the capital of Nabateans, the Arab people who dominated this region before the Romans conquered them. The city was cut into the rocks with the houses made up of intricate structures and columns. The approach to the city is through a ravine, which is less than four meters wide. The name 'Petra' comes from Greek, and can be translated as "city of rock". The ruins of Petra include temples, houses, theatre and tombs all hewn out of the living rock and the temple of Ed Deir has a magnificently carved facade, 150 feet long and 138 feet high.

THE RIVER JORDAN:

The River Jordan forms the eastern frontier of the Land of Palestine, and the sunken valley through which it flows far below the sea level is a freak of nature. At one point it falls for seven hundred feet in nine miles and it is here an immense hydroelectric power station has been established, which acts as a source of electricity to the nearby areas.

THE DEAD SEA:

The Dead Sea is forty-six miles long and eight-and-a-half miles broad. It lies 1,290 feet below sea level. It receives six-and-a-half million tons of water daily from the River Jordan, and six other streams, but all of it is carried by evaporation. It is so rich in mineral salts and phosphates that fish are unable to live it and a human body cannot sink below its surface!

BAGHDAD, FABLED CITY OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS:

Baghdad has been in continued existence as a city from the past four thousand years and during the eighth century it became under its Arab rulers the seat of the Caliphate and the emporium of the Middle East. After centuries of decline, it is again a great city, and the capital of Iraq. The Khazimain Mosque in the Shia quarter of Baghdad is famous for its enormous courtyard, and also its golden domes and minarets.

KARBALA

The city of Karbala is regarded as a holy site by the Shia Muslims. It was here Imam Husain (r.a), son of Ali (r.a), martyred by the soldiers of Yazid the Caliph in the year 680 CE. The city is centered round the mosque of Imam Husain, which is celebrated for its beautiful design, dome and three minarets, all of which are gilded.

SAMARRA'S SPIRAL MINARET

Samarra, on the Tigris is a pilgrim resort. In the ninth century it was the residence of the Abbasid Caliphs, and its ruins are of vast importance in the history of Islamic architecture. The brick minaret of the Mosque of Al-Mutawakkil dates back to 850 B.C and is remarkable for its external spiral ramp. This spiral minaret, where the muezzin once called the faithful to prayer, is the only surviving feature of the Great Mosque at Samarra, Iraq. At the time of its construction (848-852), the Great Mosque at Samarra was the largest Islamic mosque in the world.

YEMEN - SKYSCRAPERS OF THE DESERT

More reminiscent of the New York skyline than of Shibam the oasis-town of Yemen in the province of Hadhramaut. It has a town surrounded by walls. Inside are five hundred houses, like towers, nine floors high, built of local clay. The town of Shibam has earned for itself the nickname "Manhattan of the Desert", because if its mud skyscrapers. Many of Shibam's skyscrapers have finely engraved wooden doors with fancy wooden locks; the windows are latticed with elaborately carved wooden screens. Shibam was twice destroyed in the 13 th and 16 th century and was last rebuilt in the year 1553. In the past, many of its townsfolk immigrated to countries in the Far East for trade and returned home with vast fortunes and Western ideas of luxury. The modern skyscrapers are one result. The town also enjoyed great prosperity for several centuries as a city on the incense and trade routes of Southern Arabia. Later, there was a slow decline as many of Shibam's inhabitants left the town for other provinces and countries and was almost forgotten until two English travelers, Mabel and Theodore Bent, visited it at the end of the 19th century and brought it to the attention of the West.

ADEN

 Aden, garrison port and fuelling station in Yemen and it lies at the entrance of the Red Sea. It lies in one of the driest areas of the world and it depends largely for its vital water supplies upon a seven-mile long aqueduct carrying brackish water and upon thirteen tanks built by Arab engineers of the past with immense skill to harvest rainwater in the Tawila Gorge. One of the tanks, modernized by British engineers is seen in the photographs.

THE GREAT MOSQUE OF DAMASCUS

The Umayyad Mosque at Damascus is 430 feet long and 125 feet wide and is well known throughout the Arab and the Muslim world, rebuilt at the beginning of the eighth century as a mosque by the conquering Muslim armies under the command of Khalid bin Walid from what was originally the site of a church. The hexagonal fountain in the center of the courtyard is exactly halfway between Istanbul and Makkah and acts as the starting point for the pilgrims leaving for Hajj from Damascus. It is also the place where Yahya (a.s)-John the Baptist is believed to have been buried.