Mosques

As a public place of worship for Muslims, the mosque has a special importance - one reason why governments in the Middle East, North Africa and the Far East have chosen to depict mosques on their postage stamps. Another is that these places of worship are often historically valuable, architecturally striking and esthetically beautiful.

From Malaysia to Morocco, the typical mosque has the same basic form. Exteriors are often rectangular in outline with interiors consisting of a central, open court surrounded by a cloister or walkway covered by a roof atop rows of pillars. A dome often covers the mosque's central court. The wall facing the Ka'ba in Mecca, the holy city of Islam in Saudi Arabia, contains a prayer niche, or mihrab, towards which worshipers face when they pray. Rising above most mosques - vertical extensions of them - are one or more minarets from which muezzins call the faithful to prayer five times a day.

Most mosques have three features in common: fountains or faucets used by Muslims to wash before prayer, space for worshipers to pray and a pulpit, or minbar, from which a learned member of the Muslim community gives the Friday sermon. But there are variations on the basic design, and the numerous postage stamps issued by Muslim countries throughout the world show graphically how extensive these variations can be.

Story about a mosque built by two Suaid Aramco employees.  Beautiful images.

 http://ipac.kacst.edu.sa/eDoc/eBook/4105.pdf