Temple of Jupiter, Damascus

Remains of the Roman Jupiter temple in Damascus – on whose foundations a church and then the world-famous Umayyad Mosque were later built.

The Temple of Jupiter in Damascus represents one of the oldest and most layered chapters of the city's religious memory. Built by the Romans from the reign of Augustus in the 1st century AD over an earlier temple dedicated to Hadad-Ramman and the Greek Zeus, it was one of the grandest sacred structures of the Roman Orient. In the 4th century the temple was converted into a Christian church; in the 8th century the famous Umayyad Mosque was built on the same site. Several of the original temple entrance columns still stand today, rising from the old city – silent witnesses to this long arc of religious continuity.