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Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres | 4 Paths of Yoga

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Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres | 4 Paths of Yoga

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Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres | 4 Paths of Yoga

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International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres. Founded by Swami Vishnudevananda over 50 years ago, we have over 60 yoga centres and ashrams around the world. Our teacher training course now has over 26,000 graduates. We offer yoga vacations, retreats and many other programs.

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Yoga Hindu Origins | Hindu American Foundation (HAF)

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Yoga Hindu Origins | Hindu American Foundation (HAF)

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Hinduism: The Basics
"[T]he soul is the same for all individuals and nations, but our conditioning and culture determines our predisposition and outlook." - B.K.S Iygenar²
Hinduism contains within it six major schools of thought, or darshanas: Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa, and Vedanta. The underlying thread between these six darshanas is the acceptance of the Vedas as realized scripture containing the highest Truths. Thus, Hindu philosophy is often described as Vedic or the Vedic tradition. Hindus commonly refer to Hinduism as Sanatana Dharma, or the Eternal Truth.

Also uniting the darshanas is the concept of pluralism, the belief that multiple paths exist to reach liberation, or moksha, or unity with God and escape from the cyle of birth and death. In Hindu thought, the Supreme Being or the Divine resides within all that exists. And any one, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation or gender, has the ability to achieve moksha. No one person is born saved or condemned, but rather earns the fruit of their actions, words, and thoughts, or karma, and advances spiritually by acting in accordance with dharma, or righteousness.

It is with this very basic understanding in mind that yoga should be examined.

References to and Definitions of Yoga
"Yoga is from the Vedas." - T.K.V. Desikachar²
At its broadest, yoga, from the root word "yuj" in Sanskrit, means to unite. Most Hindu texts discuss yoga as a practice to control the senses and ultimately, the mind. The most famous is the Bhagavad Gita (dating back to 6th-3rd Century BCE), in which Krishna speaks of four types of yoga - bhakti, or devotion; jnana, or knowledge; karma, or action; and dhyana, or concentration (often referred to as raja yoga, though not all sources agree on the term) - as paths to achieve moksha, the ultimate goal according to Hindu understanding.

Of the four, the description of dhyana yoga has the most in common with yoga as it is largely understood today.
tatraikāgraṁ manaḥ kṛitvā yata-chittendriya-kriyaḥ upaviśhyāsane yuñjyād yogam ātma-viśhuddhaye samaṁ kāya-śhiro-grīvaṁ dhārayann achalaṁ sthiraḥ samprekṣhya nāsikāgraṁ svaṁ diśhaśh chānavalokayan There, having the mind actively focused upon a single point, with thought and sense activity controlled, Sitting on a seat, one should practice yoga for purification of the self. With an aligned body, head, and neck - keeping these steady,without movement; Focusing the vision toward the tip of one's nose without looking about in any direction. - Bhagavad Gita 6.12 - 13
Yet, while the yogas are described as four distinct paths, they are all ultimately interdependent, and with the full practice of one, comes the inclusion of the remaining three.
"Each student may take in one or the other of them as his main path, according to his subjective mental temperament. However, each intelligent student shall discover for himself that whatever be his main path, the other[s] cannot be totally eliminated from his program of self-evolution" - Swami Chinmayananda
Most importantly, the Bhagavad Gita makes clears that regardless of which path one embarks upon, yoga is an individual journey that requires lifelong dedication, consistent practice, and devotion to God.

Of course, references to yoga are found throughout Hindu scripture. The Katha Upanishad, dating back to 800 - 600 BCE, states:
tām yogam iti manyante sthirām indriya-dhāraṇām, apramattas tadā bhavati, yogo hi prabhavāpyayau. Yama: The firm control of the senses, they regard as Yoga. At that time one gets careful, for, Yoga is acquired and lost.
And the Svetasvatara Upanishad, 600 - 500 BCE, explains the results or outcomes for one who is steeped in the practice of yoga:
2.12. When the five fold qualities of yoga consisting of the earth, water, fire, air and ether are firmly established in the body, then in that body strengthened by the fire of yoga, there is no place for sickness, old age and death. 2.13 Lightness of being, health, steadiness, improvement in the complexion of the body, perfection in the voice, sweetness of the body odor, slight excretions are said to be the first results of the progress of yoga. 2.14 Just as a mirror shines brightly after it has been cleaned, so does the yogi who has realized the true nature of his soul becomes integrated as one in his body, attains sense of fulfillment and remains free from sorrow. 2.15 Through the real nature of his own soul, as if by a lamp held on the nature of Brahman, when he sees, his own real nature as one who is unborn and completely pure, He is freed from all the fetters at once.
The slightly more recent Dhyanabindu Upanishad explains yoga as having six limbs - asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, and samadhi - and goes on to provide postural detail:
There are as many postures as there are living creatures; and Maheśvara (the great Lord) knows their distinguishing features. Siḍḍha, bhaḍra, simha and paḍma are the four (chief) postures.
Today, the most commonly referenced text on yoga is Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, dating between 200 BCE - 200 CE, which lays out the definition of yoga in the second sutra:
yogas citta vritti nirodhah Yoga is the stilling of the fluctuations of the mind
While Patanjali codified the many existing teachings on yoga at his time, some of which are seen in Buddhism and Jainism, it cannot be ignored that yoga and references to its practice existed within Hindu scripture long before the Yoga Sutras.

Asana
"Now comes Asana, posture. Until you can get a firm seat you cannot practise the breathing and other exercises. Firmness of seat means that you do not feel the body at all. In the ordinary way, you will find that as soon as you sit for a few minutes all sorts of disturbances come into the body; but when you have got beyond the idea of a concrete body, you will lose all sense of the body...When you have succeeded in conquering the body and keeping it firm, your practice will remain firm, but while you are disturbed by the body, your nerves become disturbed, and you cannot concentrate the mind." - Swami Vivekananda
Today, yoga is largely misunderstood to be and is practiced primarily as asana, or physical posture. Asana practice alone is shown to have a myriad of health benefits from lowering blood pressure, relief of back pain and arthritis, and boosting of the immune system. Increasingly, many believe asana practice to reduce Attention Deficit Disorder (AD/HD) in children, and recent studies have shown it improves general behavior and grades.

And while practicing asana for improved health is perfectly acceptable, it is not the goal or purpose of yoga.

Perhaps the two most influential yoga gurus of our time, BKS Iygenar and Pattabhi Jois were clear about the intended purpose of asana. In interviews from 2004, re-published by Namarupa magazine in Fall 2014 issue, the two masters are quoted as follows:
"Asanas are not meant for physical fitness, but for conquering the elements, energy, and so on. So, how to balance the energy in the body, how to control the five elements, how to balance the various aspect of the mind without mixing them all together, and how to be able to perceive the difference between the gunas, and to experience that there is something behind them, operating in the world of man - that is what asanas are for. The process is slow and painstaking, but a steady inquiry facilitates a growing awareness." - Iyengar "But using it [yoga] for physical practice is no good, of no use - just a lot of sweating, pushing, and heavy breathing for nothing. The spiritual aspect, which is beyond the physical is the purpose of yoga. When the nervous system is purified, when your mind rests in the atman [the Self], then you can experience the true greatness of yoga." - Jois
Still, both yoga masters recognized the importance of asana as vital and necessary to the practice of yoga. Asana is the limb through which most people enter the world of yoga, and its importance should not be diminished. Higher levels of yoga cannot be achieved if the physical body is weak, sick, or injured. Asana, when practiced under the guidance of a guru or an experienced and properly trained teacher, is integral to yoga.
"To practice asana and pranayama is to learn to control the body and the senses, so that the inner light can be experienced. That light is the same for the whole world." - Jois
Unfortunately, the likes of Iygenar and Jois are difficult to come by, especially in much of today's yoga culture which is driven by a Western-mentality of commercialization and commodification. Without such insight, wisdom, and proper guidance, modern day "yoga" is asana without understanding, faith, or intention, and therefore, merely remains at the level of physical exercise.

In a 2005 interview published in Namarupa magazine, Prashant Iyengar, son of B.K.S. Iyengar, shared a similar view when he said, "We cannot expect that millions are practicing real yoga just because millions of people claim to be doing yoga all over the globe. What has spread all over the world is not yoga. It is not even non-yoga; it is un-yoga."

Importance of the Guru
"If they [teachers] teach whatever like, it is usually their ego. It should be what you have learned from your guru - that is the real method that you should teach. The parampara (lineage) should go as it is - as it was - from your guru and his guru's guru. It needs to be rooted in something real and not just fancies that are created in the moment." - Sharath Jois⁹
The ubiquitous use of the word "guru" in the West is far different from its traditional and sacred meaning in the Hindu tradition. Literally translate, guru is one who dispels darkness. A guru is not just a mere teacher or expert, but rather one who can impart wisdom which he or she has personally experienced. The Hindu tradition places great importance on self-unfoldment, and only one who has experienced levels of inner awakening is qualified and able to impart that knowledge to a student. Hindu scripture extols the guru.
Guru-Brahma, Guru-Vishnu, Guru-devo-Mahesvarah Guru-saksat Param-Brahma tasmi Sri Gurave namah Guru is Brahma, Guru is Vishnu, Guru is Lord Shiva To that very Guru I bow, for He is the Supreme Being, right before my eyes.
Furthermore, the relationship between a guru and his student (shishya) is highly revered in Hindu culture. Examples of its sacredness abound in Hindu epics like the Mahabharata, in which respect, love, and devotion to the guru is demonstrated, not only by the virtuous Arjun, but also by the misguided Duryodhan.

To truly progress in yoga, a guru in this traditional sense is necessary. Texts such as the Hatha Yoga Pradipika continuously remind the reader to only practice the various yogic techniques under the guidance of a guru. But for the majority of practitioners whose yoga is in nascent stages, an experienced and learned teacher is a must. Unfortunately, in a world of 200-hour teacher trainings, even such qualified yoga teachers are difficult to find.
"People offer 15-day courses, even one week courses, to become a yoga teacher [Laughter]. How good for yoga that is, I don't know...[You need to] be a dedicated student for many years before you even start to think about teaching." - Jois
In Yoga Sutra 1.12, Patanjali highlights the importance of abhyasa, or consistent practice. And in 1.14, he goes on to explain that yoga must be practiced, consistently with devotion and faith, for a very long time in order to build a stable foundation for spiritual progress.
sa tu dirgha kala nairantaira satkara asevitah dridha bhumih When practice is done for a long time, without a break, and with sincere devotion, then the practice becomes a firmly rooted, stable and solid foundation.
Both Jois and Iygenar considered that a consistent practice of six to ten years essential before one even begins to thinks about teaching yoga. That tradition continues in Ashtanga Yoga and Iygenar Yoga today.

Commercialization of Yoga
"[Y]oga is also a relationship, not a mass movement. It is a one-to-one relationship between people, not commercialization." - T.V.K Desikachar
Most of what is billed as yoga around the world is not the yoga described in the Yoga Sutras or any of the original texts. Rather it has morphed into a form of asana without faith, devotion, or understanding underlying it, and therefore, more akin to mere exercise. Today, one can register for a myriad of "yogas": spinning+yoga, naked yoga, doga (yoga for dogs), hot yoga, yoga on a surfboard, the list is endless. New types of "yoga" seem to appear and disappear, it seems almost daily, and they are a far cry from the yoga described in the Yoga Sutras, Bhagavad Gita, or Upanishads. In today's mass commercialization, the term "yoga" is loosely applied to the latest fitness creation that bears little to no resemblance to yoga as citta-vritti-nirodhah.

The result of this has been a decline of yoga as an inward, spiritual quest or journey into a multi-million dollar commercialized industry.
"Unfortunately, it is not good when the goal of yoga is money rather than God. Real yoga is not about money....If you want to benefit, think only of God, dedicate all your actions to God, and whatever comes your way is a gift - His gift to you." - Jois
This commercialization is problematic in general, but it is of particular to concern to Hindus who see yoga being delinked from its roots. And though yoga is a means of spiritual attainment for any and all seekers, irrespective of faith or no faith, its underlying principles are those of Hindu thought. For Hindus in America, who are often faced with "caste, cow, and karma" stereotypes in public school textbooks and mass media, the acknowledgement of yoga as a tremendous contribution of ancient Hindus to the world is important. This acknowledgement is not to imply ownership of yoga. No one owns yoga. Rather, it is an appreciation of the richness and universality of Hindu teachings.
"Indian people are used to following tradition, to having faith in the system, and to believing in moksha for liberation. But for Western people, moksha is not very important. They practice yoga primarily for their health, which is ok. But to really understand the heritage of India, one must also understand its ancient tradition. Some Westerners overlook this great heritage and have no idea what are the roots of yoga." - Jois
Yoga in Public Schools: An Addendum

Following the highly publicized lawsuit in Encinitas, CA in 2013, HAF was asked to clarify its views on yoga as a Hindu practice and the teaching of yoga in public schools. Please click here to read the addendum.

Alexander Medin, "3 Gurus, 48 Questions: Matching Interviews with TKV Desikachar, BKS Iyengar, & Sri Pattabhi Jois." Namarupa: Categories of Indian Thought, Fall 2014, 12-25.

George Feuerstein, The Yoga Tradition - Its History, Literature, Philosophy, and Practice [Prescott, AZ: 2008].

Alexander Medin, "3 Gurus, 48 Questions: Matching Interviews with TKV Desikachar, BKS Iyengar, & Sri Pattabhi Jois." Namarupa: Categories of Indian Thought, Fall 2014, 12-25.

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"[T]he soul is the same for all individuals and nations, but our conditioning and culture determines our predisposition and outlook." - B.K.S Iygenar2 Hinduism contains within it six major schools of thought, or darshanas: Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa, and Vedanta.

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Does doing yoga make you a Hindu? - BBC News

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Does doing yoga make you a Hindu? - BBC News

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For many people, the main concern in a yoga class is whether they are breathing correctly or their legs are aligned. But for others, there are lingering doubts about whether they should be there at all, or whether they are betraying their religion.

Farida Hamza, a Muslim woman living in the US (pictured above), had been doing yoga for two or three years when she decided she wanted to teach it.

"When I told my family and a few friends, they did not react positively," she recalls. "They were very confused as to why I wanted to do it - that it might be going against Islam."

Their suspicions about yoga are shared by many Muslims, Christians and Jews around the world and relate to yoga's history as an ancient spiritual practice with connections to Hinduism and Buddhism.

If I was to kneel down does that mean I'm praying - or am I just kneeling?
Rebecca Ffrench, YogaLondon

Last year, a yoga class was banned from a church hall in the UK. "Yoga is a Hindu spiritual exercise," said the priest, Father John Chandler. "Being a Catholic church we have to promote the gospel, and that's what we use our premises for." Anglican churches in the UK have taken similar decisions at one time or another. In the US, prominent pastors have called yoga "demonic".

One answer to the question of whether yoga really is a religious activity will soon be given by the Supreme Court in the country of its birth, India.

Last month, a pro-yoga group petitioned the court to make it a compulsory part of the school syllabus on health grounds - but state schools in India are avowedly secular. The court said it was uncomfortable with the idea, and will gather the views of minority groups in the coming weeks.

Find out more

Yoga and Islam appeared on Heart and Soul on the BBC World Service, presented by Azadeh Moaveni (above)

Listen again to Part One about Iran or Part Two about Malaysia

Get the Heart and Soul podcast

So is yoga fundamentally a religious activity?

"Yoga is such a broad term - that's what causes a difficulty," says Rebecca Ffrench, the co-founder YogaLondon - a yoga teacher academy - and the philosophy tutor at the school.

There are different forms of yoga, she says, some of which are more overtly religious than others. Hare Krishna monks, for example, are adherents of bhakti yoga, the yoga of devotion. What most people in the West think of as yoga is properly known as hatha yoga - a path towards enlightenment that focuses on building physical and mental strength.

But what "enlightenment" means also depends on tradition. For some Hindus it is liberation from the cycle of reincarnation, but for many yoga practitioners it is a point where you achieve stillness in your mind, or understand the true nature of the world and your place in it.

Whether that is compatible with Christianity, Islam and other religions is debatable.

To those in the know, for example, the yogic asanas, or positions, retain elements of their earlier spiritual meanings - the Surya namaskar is a series of positions designed to greet Surya, the Hindu Sun God.

"It's got a trace from history of a religious pathway," says Ffrench. "However, is something religious if you don't have the intention there? If I was to kneel down does that mean I'm praying - or am I just kneeling?"

These are deeply symbolic rituals that express and instil religion through repetition
Dean Broyles, Christian activist

This was what Farida Hamza anxiously asked herself while she was doing her yoga training, which was held in a Hindu temple.

"I felt very guilty but in the end, I had to trust that Allah understood my intentions," she wrote on her blog. "I let them know I did not want to take part in any rituals and they were so respectful of how I felt."

Yoga classes vary. While some feature the chanting of Hindu sutras, others will make vaguer references to a "life force" or "cosmic energy". A session might end with a greeting of "namaste" and a gesture of prayer. There will probably be a moment for meditation, at which point participants may be encouraged to repeat the sacred word "Om", which Buddhists and Hindus regard as a primordial sound which brought the universe into being.

But other classes may make no overt reference to spirituality at all.

'We're trying to avoid a fatwa'
A founding member of the Iranian Yoga Federation spoke to the BBC. She did not wish to give her name.
We are always walking on eggshells as yoga instructors, afraid that the doors to the practice will be closed.

When I'm teaching yoga I always emphasise that it's not a religion. It's not Hindu or Buddhist. It's a philosophy and an approach. It's a practice that can make you feel better. It improves your concentration and gives you energy - although we always have to be very careful when we mention energy as this can be misinterpreted. We're working hard to avoid getting a fatwa.

But it's interesting - we actually had a mullah who was a yoga teacher and lots of families of senior clerics who attend classes too.

That's the way things are in Iran, where yoga is very popular. It has managed to flourish in a country with Sharia law and an Islamist political system, by divesting itself of anything that could be construed as blasphemy. Yoga teachers are careful to always refer to "the sport of yoga" and are accredited by the Yoga Federation, which operates in the same way as a tennis or football organisation.

Classes tend to be slower than in the West with much discussion about the physical benefits of each position. As with other sports, yoga competitions are held, judged by specially invited international yoga teachers.

Yoga, old and new

People say that yoga is Hindu, but "Hinduism" is a problematic term, coined by outsiders for everything they saw going on in India.

Yoga stems from the Vedas - the Indian holy texts that were composed from around 1900BC. Besides yoga, three major religions came from those texts - Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.

Around 200-400AD, a sage called Patanjali composed the Yoga Sutras. His "eight limbs" of yoga still inform practice today and discuss posture, breathing, meditation and correct living.

For many centuries yoga was all about meditation and austerity practices, such as standing on one leg for weeks or hanging upside-down from a tree. There were only 14 yoga asanas or postures.

The big explosion in hatha yoga didn't come until the early 1900s in Mysore, India - now there are over 100 postures.
Rebecca Ffrench
Similar prohibitions on spiritual yoga exist in Malaysia, where a 2008 fatwa - a religious ruling - resulted in a yoga ban in five states. In the capital Kuala Lumpur, the physical activity is permitted but chanting and meditation are forbidden. Clerics in the world's most populous Islamic nation - Indonesia - make a similar distinction.

Yoga has been repackaged in the US as well.

Children at nine primary schools in Encinitas, California, take part in classes twice a week based on a style of yoga called ashtanga yoga. After some parents complained - US schools, like Indian ones, are secular - the Sanskrit names for the postures were replaced with standard English names and some special child-friendly ones, such as "kangaroo" "surfer" and "washing machine". The lotus position has been rebranded "criss-cross apple sauce", the Surya namaskar has become the "opening sequence" and the organisers insist that it is all just a form of physical exercise.

Some parents remained unconvinced though, and a Christian organisation, the National Center for Law & Policy (NCLP) took up their case. In September this year, the San Diego County Superior Court ruled that although yoga's roots are religious, the modified form of the practice is fine to teach in schools.

The NCLP is appealing. Dean Broyles, the organisation's president and chief counsel sees movements like the Surya namaskar, regardless of what they're called, as "deeply symbolic rituals that express and instil religion through repetition".

The reason many people in the West think yoga is non-religious, Broyles says, is that it falls into a theological blind-spot. "Whereas Protestant Christianity focuses on words and beliefs, ashtanga yoga's focus is practice and experience," he says. Religious intentions may not be there to begin with but practising yoga might lead them to develop.

To an extent, this point of view is endorsed by Hindus themselves. The Hindu American Foundation recently ran a campaign called "Take Back Yoga". Sheetal Shah, from the organisation, says someone raised in an "exclusivist" tradition like Islam or Christianity who becomes very interested in yoga may eventually experience some conflict with their religious beliefs.

So, for American Christians who don't like the idea of yoga, there are alternatives, including PraiseMoves.

This exercise regime combines Christian worship with stretching exercises. As the class adopts a posture, they recite a verse from the Bible. In this way, bhujangasana or the cobra pose becomes the vine posture, with a corresponding verse from John 15:5. "I am the vine and you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

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"The word yoga is a Sanskrit word that means 'union with god' or 'yoke'," says Laurette Willis, the founder of PraiseMoves. "And as a Christian, it's a different yoke - Jesus said: 'My yoke is easy, my burden is light.'"

For someone who has set about drawing people away from yoga, Willis couldn't have a clearer idea of the opposition's terrain. Her mother was a yoga teacher and she started doing it when she was seven, often acting as a demonstration model for the class. She did yoga for 22 years, eventually becoming a teacher herself.

But she says that on 25 February, 2001, at 10:35 in the morning, while she was working out to a video tape, God gave her the idea for PraiseMoves. She sees it as a process of redeeming or "buying back" yogic postures for God. Just as a musical scale can be used to make good or bad music, so the repertoire of positions in yoga can be put to Christian use.

Despite the similarities between PraiseMoves and a yoga class, Willis says she wants her classes to ruminate, not meditate.

"People leave yoga classes saying 'I feel so good. I feel so tranquil.' Well I believe that tranquillity is not peace - the peace that God gives - but it's almost a numbness.

"You've been told the whole time to 'Empty your mind! Empty your mind!' And what we do instead is fill your mind with the word of God."
Yoga and Islam appeared on the BBC World Service. Listen again on iPlayer or get the Heart and Soul podcast.
But for some Muslims, Christians and Jews, yoga is attractive precisely because it supplies a mysticism they feel is lacking in their own religion.

Estelle Eugene co-runs the Jewish Yoga Network and for 20 years has taught yoga to Jewish and non-Jewish people in London.

"I've found with general Judaism here that it's difficult to find a spiritual side that I relate to," she says. "So the yoga helps me to do that. And it enhances my respect and understanding of Jewish practices that I hadn't fully understood previously."

She says she makes small adjustments to yoga where she feels there is a conflict with Judaism. She never attends or holds a class on the holy day, Saturday, and she prefers classes without the chanting of mantras.

Eugene recently ran a Day of Jewish Yoga, which explored ways of combining yoga with Judaism. One of the sessions combined yoga with practices to help participants reach kavanah, the meditative mind-set seen as an essential for Jewish prayer and rituals.

On her website, a testimonial from Rabbi David Rosen, the former chief rabbi of Ireland, says yoga offers "much blessing and enlightenment" and arguably helps "recapture Jewish wisdom and practice which may have been lost".

An Iranian yoga teacher - who wishes to remain anonymous - told the BBC that her religious students sometimes report that they pray with more concentration after practising yoga. "They say when we go to Mecca, we feel we are able to make a deeper pilgrimage because of the yoga," she says. "Our minds and our bodies move closer to our faith."

This is not as contradictory as it might seem, according to Rebecca Ffrench.

"Something that is interesting about yoga is that whilst it is spiritual, it doesn't stipulate a specific religion," she says. "Even in the devotional forms of yoga, it says you can use any object of devotion you like, be it Ganesh, Krishna, Jesus or Allah."

She adds that atheists can also perform yoga - they can fix their attention on the "wonder of the universe" or perhaps the complexity of the DNA helix.

Farida Hamza, meanwhile, is convinced that yoga and Islam are not only compatible, but overlap significantly. The ethical precepts of yoga - captured in the principles of yama and niyama - share many essentials with the five pillars of Islam, she argues.

"Each pillar that we follow in Islam, or the duty that we have to do, is sort of existent in yoga. Simple things like - you give alms to the poor. Well, a yogi is supposed to do service. You have to be honest, you have to be non-violent - all of these are in Islam and in yoga.

"The way we pray as Muslims, each pose that we do is a yoga pose," she adds. "So Muslims that hate yoga are probably doing yoga without realising it." Muslims even join their middle finger and thumb together during prayer, similar to a yoga mudra, she says, though she doesn't believe Islam came from yoga or was influenced by it.

Born in India but raised in Oman, Hamza sees her path towards yoga as part of a plan drawn up by Allah. "I am grateful for the joy I felt when my hamstrings opened," she says. "And my big toe stretch, or the first time I did a standing bow - it took me two years to do a standing bow.

"But I did it and that is Allah's grace - he blessed me with that."

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For many people, the main concern in a yoga class is whether they are breathing correctly or their legs are aligned. But for others, there are lingering doubts about whether they should be there at all, or whether they are betraying their religion.

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The Global Religious Landscape | Pew Research Center

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The Global Religious Landscape | Pew Research Center

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Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project

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Worldwide, more than eight-in-ten people identify with a religious group. A comprehensive demographic study of more than 230 countries and territories conducted by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life estimates that there are 5.8 billion religiously affiliated adults and children around the globe, representing 84% of the 2010 world population of 6.9 billion.

The demographic study - based on analysis of more than 2,500 censuses, surveys and population registers - finds 2.2 billion Christians (32% of the world's population), 1.6 billion Muslims (23%), 1 billion Hindus (15%), nearly 500 million Buddhists (7%) and 14 million Jews (0.2%) around the world as of 2010. In addition, more than 400 million people (6%) practice various folk or traditional religions, including African traditional religions, Chinese folk religions, Native American religions and Australian aboriginal religions. An estimated 58 million people - slightly less than 1% of the global population - belong to other religions, including the Baha'i faith, Jainism, Sikhism, Shintoism, Taoism, Tenrikyo, Wicca and Zoroastrianism, to mention just a few.

At the same time, the new study by the Pew Forum also finds that roughly one-in-six people around the globe (1.1 billion, or 16%) have no religious affiliation. This makes the unaffiliated the third-largest religious group worldwide, behind Christians and Muslims, and about equal in size to the world's Catholic population. Surveys indicate that many of the unaffiliated hold some religious or spiritual beliefs (such as belief in God or a universal spirit) even though they do not identify with a particular faith. (See Religiously Unaffiliated.)

Geographic Distribution

The geographic distribution of religious groups varies considerably. Several religious groups are heavily concentrated in the Asia-Pacific region, including the vast majority of Hindus (99%), Buddhists (99%), adherents of folk or traditional religions (90%) and members of other world religions (89%).

Three-quarters of the religiously unaffiliated (76%) also live in the massive and populous Asia- Pacific region. Indeed, the number of religiously unaffiliated people in China alone (about 700 million) is more than twice the total population of the United States.

The Asia-Pacific region also is home to most of the world's Muslims (62%). About 20% of Muslims live in the Middle East and North Africa, and nearly 16% reside in sub-Saharan Africa.

Of the major religious groups covered in this study, Christians are the most evenly dispersed. Roughly equal numbers of Christians live in Europe (26%), Latin America and the Caribbean (24%) and sub-Saharan Africa (24%).

A plurality of Jews (44%) live in North America, while about four-in-ten (41%) live in the Middle East and North Africa - almost all of them in Israel.

Living as Majorities and Minorities

Nearly three-quarters (73%) of the world's people live in countries in which their religious group makes up a majority of the population. Only about a quarter (27%) of all people live as religious minorities. (This figure does not include subgroups of the eight major groups in this study, such as Shia Muslims living in Sunni-majority countries or Catholics living in Protestant-majority countries.)

Overwhelmingly, Hindus and Christians tend to live in countries where they are in the majority. Fully 97% of all Hindus live in the world's three Hindu-majority countries (India, Mauritius and Nepal), and nearly nine-in-ten Christians (87%) are found in the world's 157 Christian-majority countries. (To see the religious composition of each country, see Religious Composition by Country table.)

Though by smaller margins, most Muslims (73%) and religiously unaffiliated people (71%) also live in countries in which they are the predominant religious group. Muslims are a majority in 49 countries, including 19 of the 20 countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The religiously unaffiliated make up a majority of the population in six countries, of which China is by far the largest. (The others are the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hong Kong, Japan and North Korea.)

Most members of the other major religious groups live in countries in which they are in the minority. Seven-in-ten Buddhists (72%), for example, live as religious minorities. Just three-in-ten (28%) live in the seven countries where Buddhists are in the majority: Bhutan, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Israel is the only country with a Jewish majority. There are no countries where members of other religions (such as Baha'is, Jains, Shintoists, Sikhs, Taoists, followers of Tenrikyo, Wiccans and Zoroastrians) make up a majority of the population. There are also no countries where people who identify with folk or traditional religions clearly form a majority.

Young and Old

Some religions have much younger populations, on average, than others. In part, the age differences reflect the geographic distribution of religious groups. Those with a large share of adherents in fast-growing, developing countries tend to have younger populations. Those concentrated in China and in advanced industrial countries, where population growth is slower, tend to be older.

The median age of two major groups - Muslims (23 years) and Hindus (26) - is younger than the median age of the world's overall population (28). All the other groups are older than the global median. Christians have a median age of 30, followed by members of other religions (32), adherents of folk or traditional religions (33), the religiously unaffiliated (34) and Buddhists (34). Jews have the highest median age (36), more than a dozen years older than the youngest group, Muslims.

About the Study

These are among the key findings of a new study of the global religious landscape conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life as part of the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures project, which analyzes religious change and its impact on societies around the world.

The demographic study explores the size, geographic distribution and median age of eight major religious groups - including the unaffiliated - that together represent 100% of the estimated 2010 global population. The study is based on a country-by-country analysis of data from more than 2,500 national censuses, large-scale surveys and official population registers that were collected, evaluated and standardized by the Pew Forum's demographers and other research staff. Many countries have recently conducted a national census or are in the midst of doing so. Therefore, new data are likely to emerge over the next few years. However, a datacollection cut-off had to be made at some point; this report is based on information available as of early 2012.

For estimates of the religious composition of individual countries, see Religious Composition by Country table. For details on the methodology used to produce estimates of religious populations in 232 countries and territories, see Appendix A. For a list of data sources by country, see Appendix B.

To see each country's and territory's population broken down by number and percentage into the eight major religious groups in the study, see the sortable tables at http://features.pewforum.org/grl/population-number.php.

There are some minor differences between the estimates presented in this study and previous Pew Forum estimates of Christian and Muslim populations around the world. These differences reflect the availability of new data sources, such as recently released censuses in a few countries, and the use of population growth projections to update estimates in countries with older primary sources. (For more details, see the Methodology.)

Defining the Religious Groups

This study is based on self-identification. It seeks to estimate the number of people around the world who view themselves as belonging to various religious groups. It does not attempt to measure the degree to which members of these groups actively practice their faiths or how religious they are.

In order to obtain statistics that are comparable across countries, the study attempts to count groups and individuals who self-identify as members of five widely recognized world religions - Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Muslims and Jews - as well as people associated with three other religious categories that may be less familiar:

Folk or Traditional Religions

Folk religions are closely tied to a particular people, ethnicity or tribe. In some cases, elements of other world religions are blended with local beliefs and customs. These faiths often have no formal creeds or sacred texts. Examples of folk religions include African traditional religions, Chinese folk religions, Native American religions and Australian aboriginal religions.

The Religiously Unaffiliated

The religiously unaffiliated population includes atheists, agnostics and people who do not identify with any particular religion in surveys. However, many of the religiously unaffiliated do hold religious or spiritual beliefs. For example, various surveys have found that belief in God or a higher power is shared by 7% of unaffiliated Chinese adults, 30% of unaffiliated French adults and 68% of unaffiliated U.S. adults.

Other Religions

The "other religions" category is diverse and comprises groups not classified elsewhere. This category includes followers of religions that often are not measured separately in censuses and surveys: the Baha'i faith, Jainism, Shintoism, Sikhism, Taoism, Tenrikyo, Wicca, Zoroastrianism and many other religions. Because of the lack of data on these faiths in many countries, the Pew Forum has not attempted to estimate the size of individual religions within this category, though some rough estimates are available from other sources. (See Spotlight on Other Religions.)

Roadmap to the Report

These and other findings are discussed in more detail in the remainder of this report, which is divided into eight sections - one for each of the major religious groupings, in order of size:

To discuss the geographic distribution of religious groups, this report divides the world into six major regions: Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, North America and sub-Saharan Africa. For a list of countries in each region, see the Methodology.
Footnotes:
1 Although some faiths in the "other religions" category have millions of adherents around the world, censuses and surveys in many countries do not measure them specifically. Estimates of the global size of these faiths generally come from other sources, such as the religious groups themselves. By far the largest of these groups are Sikhs, who number about 25 million, according to the World Religion Database. For more information, see Spotlight on Other Religions. (return to text)

2 For a discussion of the challenges of measuring the pervasiveness of folk or traditional religions, see the section on Folk Religionists. (return to text)

3 The median in a population is the midpoint when the entire population is ordered by some characteristic, such as age or income. If everyone alive in 2010 lined up from youngest to oldest, the person in the middle (the median) would be 28 years old. (return to text)

4 A population register is a list of all permanent residents of a country. See the United Nations Statistics Division's description of population registers ( http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/sources/popreg/popregmethods.htm). (return to text)

5 For instance, in December 2012, just before the release of this report, new religion data were released from the 2011 Census of England and Wales. The new data suggest a slightly different religious landscape than the estimate made by this study for the broader United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland), which is based primarily on the 2010 Annual Population Survey carried out by the U.K.'s Office for National Statistics.(return to text)

6 For more information on the beliefs and practices of religiously unaffiliated adults in the United States, see the Pew Forum's October 2012 report " 'Nones' on the Rise." The Pew Forum's U.S. surveys typically ask about belief in "God or a universal spirit." French results are based on a Pew Forum analysis of 2008 International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) data. The ISSP survey asks about belief in God or a "higher power of some kind." Chinese results are based on a Pew Forum analysis of the 2007 Spiritual Life Study of Chinese Residents, conducted by the Chinese polling firm Horizon. In China, the belief in God statistic measures belief in God, gods, spirits, ghosts or Buddha. (return to text)

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A country-by-country analysis of data from more than 2,500 censuses, surveys and population registers finds that 84% of adults and children around the globe are religiously affiliated. The study also finds that the median age of two major groups - Muslims (23 years) and Hindus (26) - is younger than the world's overall population (28), while Jews have the highest median age (36).

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(114) Introduction to cultures and religions for the study of AP Art History | Khan Academy

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(114) Introduction to cultures and religions for the study of AP Art History | Khan Academy

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Introduction to cultures and religions for the study of AP Art History | Khan Academy

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Learn for free about math, art, computer programming, economics, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, finance, history, and more. Khan Academy is a nonprofit with the mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.

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(114) Arts of the Islamic World (article) | Khan Academy

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(114) Arts of the Islamic World (article) | Khan Academy

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Read and learn for free about the following article: Introduction to mosque architecture

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Blue Mosque - 3D Virtual Tour

Blue Mosque virtual tours can be started by clicking the preview window or by downloading the stand-alone versions. Just drag the mouse to the direction you want to look. Use the scroll wheel to zoom at the details. Press F9 to get a list of the 3D sites you downloaded (residing in the same directory). To install the listed sites as a screensaver press F5. Our advise is to install all the sites, including Blue Mosque, as a screensaver. When the screensaver starts, a random site is chosen and shown around automatically (this gives the impression of looking at a documentary in HD quality). To see the usage of other keys press F1. Press Ecs to exit.

Panorama shootings for Blue Mosque were done in the years 2006 and 2008. Shooting equipment was Nikon D70 and D80 digital camera, 10.5 mm fisheye lens, remote control, panoramic tripod head and a tripod. For Blue Mosque 288+ pictures were taken. The pictures that are taken for different angles are later combined using a computer to form a full 360 degree panoramic view, surrounding the viewer both horizontally and vertically.

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Blue Mosque - 360Â° panoramic virtual tour - experience Blue Mosque as if you’re there!

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The first mosques were simple places of prayer for Muslims, and may have been open spaces rather than buildings. In the first stage of Islamic architecture, 650-750 CE, early mosques comprised open and closed covered spaces enclosed by walls, often with minarets from which calls to prayer were issued. Mosque buildings typically contain an ornamental niche () set into the wall that indicates the direction of Mecca () and ablution facilities. The pulpit (), from which the Friday ( jumu'ah) sermon () is delivered, was in earlier times characteristic of the central city mosque, but has since become common in smaller mosques. Mosques typically have segregated spaces for men and women. This basic pattern of organization has assumed different forms depending on the region, period and denomination.

Mosques commonly serve as locations for prayer, Ramadan vigils, funeral services, marriage and business agreements, alms collection and distribution, as well as homeless shelters. Historically, mosques have served as a community center, a court of law, and a religious school. In modern times, they have also preserved their role as places of religious instruction and debate. Special importance is accorded to the Great Mosque of Mecca (centre of the hajj), the Prophet's Mosque in Medina (burial place of Muhammad) and Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem (believed to be the site of Muhammad's ascent to heaven).

With the spread of Islam, mosques multiplied across the Islamic world. Sometimes churches and temples were converted into mosques, which influenced Islamic architectural styles. While most pre-modern mosques were funded by charitable endowments, increasing government regulation of large mosques has been countered by a rise of privately funded mosques, many of which serve as bases for different Islamic revivalist currents and social activism. Mosques have played a number of political roles. The rates of mosque attendance vary widely depending on the region.

The word 'mosque' entered the English language from the French word mosquée, probably derived from Italian moschea (a variant of Italian moscheta), from either Middle Armenian մզկիթ ( mzkit'), Medieval Greek: μασγίδιον ( masgídion), or Spanish mezquita, from (meaning "site of prostration (in prayer)" and hence a place of worship), either from Nabataean or from Arabic Arabic: سَجَدَ, Nabataean Arabic or sajada (meaning "to bow down in prayer"), probably ultimately from Aramaic .

According to Islamic scholars and history, Islam was established in Arabia during the lifetime of Muhammad in the 7th century CE, and so did architectural components such as the mosque. In this case, either the Mosque of the Companions in the Eritrean city of Massawa, or the Quba Mosque in the Hejazi city of Medina (the first structure built by Muhammad upon his emigration from Mecca in 622 CE), would be the first mosque that was built in the history of Islam.

Other scholars reference Islamic tradition and passages of the Quran, according to which Islam as a religion precedes Muhammad, and includes previous prophets such as Abraham. In Islamic tradition, Abraham is credited with having built the (' Cube') in Mecca, and consequently its sanctuary, Al-Masjid Al-Haram (The Sacred Mosque), which is seen by Muslims as the first mosque that existed. A Hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari states that the sanctuary of the Kaaba was the first mosque on Earth, with the second mosque being Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, which is also associated with Abraham. Since as early as 638 CE, the Sacred Mosque of Mecca has been expanded on several occasions to accommodate the increasing number of Muslims who either live in the area or make the annual pilgrimage known as to the city.

Either way, after the Quba Mosque, Muhammad went on to establish another mosque in Medina, which is now known as Al-Masjid an-Nabawi (The Prophet's Mosque). Built on the site of his home, Muhammad participated in the construction of the mosque himself and helped pioneer the concept of the mosque as the focal point of the Islamic city. The Prophet's mosque introduced some of the features still common in today's mosques, including the niche at the front of the prayer space known as the and the tiered pulpit called the . The mosque was also constructed with a large courtyard, a motif common among mosques built since then.

The Great Mosque of Kairouan in present-day Tunisia was the first mosque built in northwest Africa, with its present form (dating from the ninth century) serving as a model for other Islamic places of worship in the Maghreb. It was the first to incorporate a square minaret (as opposed to the more common circular minaret) and includes naves akin to a basilica. Those features can also be found in Andalusian mosques, including the Grand Mosque of Cordoba, as they tended to reflect the architecture of the Moors instead of their Visigoth predecessors. Still, some elements of Visigothic architecture, like horseshoe arches, were infused into the mosque architecture of Spain and the Maghreb.

The first mosque in East Asia was established in the eighth century in Xi'an. The Great Mosque of Xi'an, whose current building dates from the 18th century, does not replicate the features often associated with mosques elsewhere. Minarets were initially prohibited by the state. Following traditional Chinese architecture, the Great Mosque of Xi'an, like many other mosques in eastern China, resembles a pagoda, with a green roof instead of the yellow roof common on imperial structures in China. Mosques in western China were more likely to incorporate elements, like domes and minarets, traditionally seen in mosques elsewhere.

A similar integration of foreign and local influences could be seen on the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Java, where mosques, including the Demak Great Mosque, were first established in the 15th century. Early Javanese mosques took design cues from Hindu, Buddhist, and Chinese architectural influences, with tall timber, multi-level roofs similar to the pagodas of Balinese Hindu temples; the ubiquitous Islamic dome did not appear in Indonesia until the 19th century. In turn, the Javanese style influenced the styles of mosques in Indonesia's Austronesian neighbors- Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines.

Muslim empires were instrumental in the evolution and spread of mosques. Although mosques were first established in India during the seventh century, they were not commonplace across the subcontinent until the arrival of the Mughals in the 16th and 17th centuries. Reflecting their Timurid origins, Mughal-style mosques included onion domes, pointed arches, and elaborate circular minarets, features common in the Persian and Central Asian styles. The Jama Masjid in Delhi and the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, built in a similar manner in the mid-17th century, remain two of the largest mosques on the Indian subcontinent.

The Umayyad Caliphate was particularly instrumental in spreading Islam and establishing mosques within the Levant, as the Umayyads constructed among the most revered mosques in the region - Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, and the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. The designs of the Dome of the Rock and the Umayyad Mosque were influenced by Byzantine architecture, a trend that continued with the rise of the Ottoman Empire.

Several of the early mosques in the Ottoman Empire were originally churches or cathedrals from the Byzantine Empire, with the Hagia Sophia (one of those converted cathedrals) informing the architecture of mosques from after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople. Still, the Ottomans developed their own architectural style characterized by large central rotundas (sometimes surrounded by multiple smaller domes), pencil-shaped minarets, and open facades.

Mosques from the Ottoman period are still scattered across Eastern Europe, but the most rapid growth in the number of mosques in Europe has occurred within the past century as more Muslims have migrated to the continent. Many major European cities are home to mosques, like the Grand Mosque of Paris, that incorporate domes, minarets, and other features often found with mosques in Muslim-majority countries. The first mosque in North America was founded by Albanian Americans in 1915, but the continent's oldest surviving mosque, the Mother Mosque of America, was built in 1934. As in Europe, the number of American mosques has rapidly increased in recent decades as Muslim immigrants, particularly from South Asia, have come in the United States. Greater than forty percent of mosques in the United States were constructed after 2000.

According to early Muslim historians, towns that surrendered without resistance and made treaties with the Muslims were allowed to retain their churches and the towns captured by Muslims had many of their churches converted to mosques. One of the earliest examples of these kinds of conversions was in Damascus, Syria, where in 705 Umayyad caliph Al-Walid I bought the church of St. John from the Christians and had it rebuilt as a mosque in exchange for building a number of new churches for the Christians in Damascus. Overall, Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (Al-Waleed's father) is said to have transformed 10 churches in Damascus into mosques.

The process of turning churches into mosques were especially intensive in the villages where most of the inhabitants converted to Islam. The Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun turned many churches into mosques. Ottoman Turks converted nearly all churches, monasteries, and chapels in Constantinople, including the famous Hagia Sophia, into mosques immediately after capturing the city in 1453. In some instances mosques have been established on the places of Jewish or Christian sanctuaries associated with Biblical personalities who were also recognized by Islam.

Mosques have also been converted for use by other religions, notably in southern Spain, following the conquest of the Moors in 1492. The most prominent of them is the Great Mosque of Cordoba, itself constructed on the site of a church demolished during the period of Muslim rule. Outside of the Iberian Peninsula, such instances also occurred in southeastern Europe once regions were no longer under Muslim rule.

The masjid jāmiʿ ( Arabic: مَسْجِد جَامِع), a central mosque, can play a role in religious activities such as teaching the Quran and educating future imams.

There are two holidays ( Eids) in the Islamic calendar: and , during which there are special prayers held at mosques in the morning. These Eid prayers are supposed to be offered in large groups, and so, in the absence of an outdoor , a large mosque will normally host them for their congregants as well as the congregants of smaller local mosques. Some mosques will even rent convention centers or other large public buildings to hold the large number of Muslims who attend. Mosques, especially those in countries where Muslims are the majority, will also host Eid prayers outside in courtyards, town squares or on the outskirts of town in an Eidgah.

Islam's holiest month, , is observed through many events. As Muslims must fast during the day during Ramadan, mosques will host dinners after sunset and the fourth required prayer of the day, that is . Food is provided, at least in part, by members of the community, thereby creating daily potluck dinners. Because of the community contribution necessary to serve iftar dinners, mosques with smaller congregations may not be able to host the iftar dinners daily. Some mosques will also hold meals before dawn to congregants attending the first required prayer of the day, . As with iftar dinners, congregants usually provide the food for suhoor, although able mosques may provide food instead. Mosques will often invite poorer members of the Muslim community to share in beginning and breaking the fasts, as providing charity during Ramadan is regarded in Islam as especially honorable.

Following the last obligatory daily prayer () special, optional prayers are offered in larger mosques. During each night of prayers, which can last for up to two hours each night, usually one member of the community who has memorized the entire Quran (a Hafiz) will recite a segment of the book. Sometimes, several such people (not necessarily of the local community) take turns to do this. During the last ten days of Ramadan, larger mosques will host all-night programs to observe Laylat al-Qadr, the night Muslims believe that Muhammad first received Quranic revelations. On that night, between sunset and sunrise, mosques employ speakers to educate congregants in attendance about Islam. Mosques or the community usually provide meals periodically throughout the night

During the last ten days of Ramadan, larger mosques within the Muslim community will host , a practice in which at least one Muslim man from the community must participate. Muslims performing itikaf are required to stay within the mosque for ten consecutive days, often in worship or learning about Islam. As a result, the rest of the Muslim community is responsible for providing the participants with food, drinks, and whatever else they need during their stay.

The third of the Five Pillars of Islam states that Muslims are required to give approximately one-fortieth of their wealth to charity as . Since mosques form the center of Muslim communities, they are where Muslims go to both give zakat and, if necessary, collect it. Before the holiday of Eid ul-Fitr, mosques also collect a special zakat that is supposed to assist in helping poor Muslims attend the prayers and celebrations associated with the holiday.

The frequency by which Muslims attend mosque services vary greatly around the world. In some countries, weekly attendance at religious services are common among Muslims while in others, attendance is rare. A study of American Muslims did not find differences in mosque attendance by gender or age.

Arab-plan or hypostyle mosques are the earliest type of mosques, pioneered under the Umayyad Dynasty. These mosques have square or rectangular plans with an enclosed courtyard () and covered prayer hall. Historically, in the warm Middle Eastern and Mediterranean climates, the courtyard served to accommodate the large number of worshippers during Friday prayers. Most early hypostyle mosques had flat roofs on prayer halls, which required the use of numerous columns and supports. One of the most notable hypostyle mosques is the Great Mosque of Cordoba in Spain, the building being supported by over 850 columns. Frequently, hypostyle mosques have outer arcades (riwaq) so that visitors can enjoy the shade. Arab-plan mosques were constructed mostly under the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties. The simplicity of the Arab plan limited the opportunities for further development, the mosques consequently losing popularity.

The first departure within mosque design started in Persia (Iran). The Persians had inherited a rich architectural legacy from the earlier Persian dynasties, and they began incorporating elements from earlier Parthian and Sassanid designs into their mosques, influenced by buildings such as the Palace of Ardashir and the Sarvestan Palace. Thus, Islamic architecture witnessed the introduction of such structures as domes and large, arched entrances, referred to as . During Seljuq rule, as Islamic mysticism was on the rise, the four-iwan arrangement took form. The four-iwan format, finalized by the Seljuqs, and later inherited by the Safavids, firmly established the courtyard façade of such mosques, with the towering gateways at every side, as more important than the actual buildings themselves. They typically took the form of a square-shaped central courtyard with large entrances at each side, giving the impression of gateways to the spiritual world. The Persians also introduced Persian gardens into mosque designs. Soon, a distinctly Persian style of mosques started appearing that would significantly influence the designs of later Timurid, and also Mughal, mosque designs.

The Ottomans introduced central dome mosques in the 15th century. These mosques have a large dome centered over the prayer hall. In addition to having a large central dome, a common feature is smaller domes that exist off-center over the prayer hall or throughout the rest of the mosque, where prayer is not performed. This style was heavily influenced by Byzantine architecture with its use of large central domes.

Mosques built in Southeast Asia often represent the Indonesian-Javanese style architecture, which are different from the ones found throughout the Greater Middle East. The ones found in Europe and North America appear to have various styles but most are built on Western architectural designs, some are former churches or other buildings that were used by non-Muslims. In Africa, most mosques are old but the new ones are built in imitation of those of the Middle East. This can be seen in the Abuja National Mosque in Nigeria and others.

Islam forbids figurative art, on the grounds that the artist must not imitate God's creation. Mosques are, therefore, decorated with abstract patterns and beautiful inscriptions. Decoration is often concentrated around doorways and the . Tiles are used widely in mosques. They lend themselves to pattern-making, can be made with beautiful subtle colors, and can create a cool atmosphere, an advantage in the hot Arab countries. Quotations from the Quran often adorn mosque interiors. These texts are meant to inspire people by their beauty, while also reminding them of the words of Allah.

The prayer hall, also known as the muṣallá ( Arabic: مُصَلَّى), rarely has furniture; chairs and pews are generally absent from the prayer hall so as to allow as many worshipers as possible to line the room. Some mosques have Islamic calligraphy and Quranic verses on the walls to assist worshippers in focusing on the beauty of Islam and its holiest book, the Quran, as well as for decoration.

Often, a limited part of the prayer hall is sanctified formally as a masjid in the sharia sense (although the term masjid is also used for the larger mosque complex as well). Once designated, there are onerous limitations on the use of this formally designated masjid, and it may not be used for any purpose other than worship; restrictions that do not necessarily apply to the rest of the prayer area, and to the rest of the mosque complex (although such uses may be restricted by the conditions of the that owns the mosque).

In many mosques, especially the early congregational mosques, the prayer hall is in the hypostyle form (the roof held up by a multitude of columns). One of the finest examples of the hypostyle-plan mosques is the Great Mosque of Kairouan (also known as the Mosque of Uqba) in Tunisia.

Usually opposite the entrance to the prayer hall is the qiblah wall, the visually emphasized area inside the prayer hall. The qiblah wall should, in a properly oriented mosque, be set perpendicular to a line leading to Mecca, the location of the Kaaba. Congregants pray in rows parallel to the qiblah wall and thus arrange themselves so they face Mecca. In the qiblah wall, usually at its center, is the mihrab, a niche or depression indicating the direction of Mecca. Usually the mihrab is not occupied by furniture either. A raised minbar or pulpit is located to the right side of the mihrab for a , or some other speaker, to offer a (Sermon) during Friday prayers. The mihrab serves as the location where the imam leads the five daily prayers on a regular basis.

Left to the mihrab, in the front left corner of the mosque, sometimes there is a (Turkish kürsü, Bosnian ), a small elevated plateau (rarely with a chair or other type of seat) used for less formal preaching and speeches.

Women who pray in mosques are separated from men there. Their part for prayer is called or maqfil (Bosnian ). It is located above the main prayer hall, elevated in the background as stairs-separated gallery or plateau (surface-shortened to the back relative to the bottom main part). It usually has a perforated fence at the front, through which imam (and male prayers in the main hall) can be partially seen. Makhphil is completely used by men when Jumu'ah is practised (due to lack of space).

A , also spelled as mehrab is a semicircular niche in the wall of a mosque that faces the (i.e. the "front" of the mosque); the imam stands in this niche and leads prayer. Given that the imam typically stands alone in the frontmost row, this niche's practical effect is to save unused space. The is a pulpit from which the Friday sermon is delivered. While the minbar of Muhammad was a simple chair, later it became larger and attracted artistic attention. Some remained made of wood, albeit exquisitely carved, while others were made of marble and featured friezes.

A common feature in mosques is the minaret, the tall, slender tower that usually is situated at one of the corners of the mosque structure. The top of the minaret is always the highest point in mosques that have one, and often the highest point in the immediate area.

The origin of the minaret and its initial functions are not clearly known and have long been a topic of scholarly discussion. The earliest mosques lacked minarets, and the call to prayer was often performed from smaller structures or elevated platforms. The early Muslim community of Medina gave the call to prayer from the doorway or the roof of the house of Muhammad, which doubled as a place for prayer. The first confirmed minarets in the form of towers date from the early 9th century under Abbasid rule and they did not become a standard feature of mosques until the 11th century. These first minaret towers were placed in the middle of the wall opposite the qibla wall. Among them, the minaret of the Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia, dating from 836, is well-preserved and is one of the oldest surviving minarets in the world today.

Before the five required daily prayers, a Mu'adhdhin (Arabic: مُـؤَذِّن) calls the worshippers to prayer from the minaret. In many countries like Singapore where Muslims are not the majority, mosques are prohibited from loudly broadcasting the (Arabic: أَذَان, Call to Prayer), although it is supposed to be said loudly to the surrounding community. The adhan is required before every prayer. Nearly every mosque assigns a muezzin for each prayer to say the adhan as it is a recommended practice or ( Arabic: سُـنَّـة) of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. At mosques that do not have minarets, the adhan is called instead from inside the mosque or somewhere else on the ground. The (Arabic: إِقَـامَـة), which is similar to the adhan and proclaimed right before the commencement of prayers, is usually not proclaimed from the minaret even if a mosque has one.

The domes, often placed directly above the main prayer hall, may signify the vaults of the heaven and sky. As time progressed, domes grew, from occupying a small part of the roof near the mihrab to encompassing the whole roof above the prayer hall. Although domes normally took on the shape of a hemisphere, the Mughals in India popularized onion-shaped domes in South Asia which has gone on to become characteristic of the Arabic architectural style of dome. Some mosques have multiple, often smaller, domes in addition to the main large dome that resides at the center. The domes of Turkish-style mosques are influenced by Byzantine architecture, particularly from the 15th century onwards as the Balkans and Constantinople became part of the Ottoman Empire.

As ritual purification precedes all prayers, mosques often have ablution fountains or other facilities for washing in their entryways or courtyards. Worshippers at much smaller mosques often have to use restrooms to perform their ablutions. In traditional mosques, this function is often elaborated into a freestanding building in the center of a courtyard. This desire for cleanliness extends to the prayer halls where shoes are disallowed to be worn anywhere other than the cloakroom. Thus, foyers with shelves to put shoes and racks to hold coats are commonplace among mosques.

Modern mosques have a variety of amenities available to their congregants. As mosques are supposed to appeal to the community, they may also have additional facilities, from health clinics and clubs (gyms) to libraries to gymnasiums, to serve the community.

Certain symbols are represented in a mosque's architecture to allude to different aspects of the Islamic religion. One of these feature symbols is the spiral. The "cosmic spiral" found in designs and on minarets is a references to heaven as it has "no beginning and no end". Mosques also often have floral patterns or images of fruit and vegetables. These are allusions to the paradise after death.

Appointment of a prayer leader is considered desirable, but not always obligatory. The permanent prayer leader ( imam) must be a free honest individual and is authoritative in religious matters. In mosques constructed and maintained by the government, the prayer leader is appointed by the ruler; in private mosques, appointment is made by members of the congregation through majority voting. According to the Hanafi school of Islamic jurisprudence, the individual who built the mosque has a stronger claim to the title of imam, but this view is not shared by the other schools.

Leadership at prayer falls into three categories, depending on the type of prayer: five daily prayers, Friday prayer, or optional prayers. According to the Hanafi and Maliki school of Islamic jurisprudence, appointment of a prayer leader for Friday service is mandatory because otherwise the prayer is invalid. The Shafi'i and Hanbali schools argue that the appointment is not necessary and the prayer is valid as long as it is performed in a congregation. A slave may lead a Friday prayer, but Muslim authorities disagree over whether the job can be done by a minor. An imam appointed to lead Friday prayers may also lead at the five daily prayers; Muslim scholars agree to the leader appointed for five daily services may lead the Friday service as well.

All Muslim authorities hold the consensus opinion that only men may lead prayer for men. Nevertheless, women prayer leaders are allowed to lead prayer in front of all-female congregations.

All mosques have rules regarding cleanliness, as it is an essential part of the worshippers' experience. Muslims before prayer are required to cleanse themselves in an ablution process known as wudu. Shoes must not be worn inside the carpeted prayer hall. Some mosques will also extend that rule to include other parts of the facility even if those other locations are not devoted to prayer. Congregants and visitors to mosques are supposed to be clean themselves. It is also undesirable to come to the mosque after eating something that smells, such as garlic.

Islam requires that its adherents wear clothes that portray modesty. Men are supposed to come to the mosque wearing loose and clean clothes that do not reveal the shape of the body. Likewise, it is recommended that women at a mosque wear loose clothing that covers to the wrists and ankles, and cover their heads with a ( Arabic: حِجاب), or other covering. Many Muslims, regardless of their ethnic background, wear Middle Eastern clothing associated with Arabic Islam to special occasions and prayers at mosques.

As mosques are places of worship, those within the mosque are required to remain respectful to those in prayer. Loud talking within the mosque, as well as discussion of topics deemed disrespectful, is forbidden in areas where people are praying. In addition, it is disrespectful to walk in front of or otherwise disturb Muslims in prayer. The walls within the mosque have few items, except for possibly Islamic calligraphy, so Muslims in prayer are not distracted. Muslims are also discouraged from wearing clothing with distracting images and symbols so as not to divert the attention of those standing behind them during prayer. In many mosques, even the carpeted prayer area has no designs, its plainness helping worshippers to focus.

There is nothing written in the Qur'an about the issue of space in mosques and gender separation. Traditional rules have segregated women and men. By traditional rules, women are most often told to occupy the rows behind the men. In part, this was a practical matter as the traditional posture for prayer - kneeling on the floor, head to the ground - made mixed-gender prayer uncomfortably revealing for many women and distracting for some men. Traditionalists try to argue that Muhammad preferred women to pray at home rather than at a mosque, and they cite a in which Muhammad supposedly said: "The best mosques for women are the inner parts of their houses," although women were active participants in the mosque started by Muhammad. Muhammad told Muslims not to forbid women from entering mosques. They are allowed to go in. The second Sunni caliph ' Umar at one time prohibited women from attending mosques especially at night because he feared they might be sexually harassed or assaulted by men, so he required them to pray at home. Sometimes a special part of the mosque was railed off for women; for example, the governor of Mecca in 870 had ropes tied between the columns to make a separate place for women.

Many mosques today will put the women behind a barrier or partition or in another room. Mosques in South and Southeast Asia put men and women in separate rooms, as the divisions were built into them centuries ago. In nearly two-thirds of American mosques, women pray behind partitions or in separate areas, not in the main prayer hall; some mosques do not admit women at all due to the lack of space and the fact that some prayers, such as the Friday Jumuʻah, are mandatory for men but optional for women. Although there are sections exclusively for women and children, the Grand Mosque in Mecca is desegregated.

Under most interpretations of sharia, non-Muslims are permitted to enter mosques provided that they respect the place and the people inside it. A dissenting opinion and minority view is presented by followers of the Maliki school of Islamic jurisprudence, who argue that non-Muslims may not be allowed into mosques under any circumstances.

The Quran addresses the subject of non-Muslims, and particularly polytheists, in mosques in two verses in its ninth chapter, Sura At-Tawba. The seventeenth verse of the chapter prohibits those who join gods with Allah -polytheists-from maintaining mosques:

It is not for such as join gods with Allah, to maintain the mosques of Allah while they witness against their own souls to infidelity. The works of such bear no fruit: In Fire shall they dwell.

The twenty-eighth verse of the same chapter is more specific as it only considers polytheists in the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca:

O ye who believe! Truly the Pagans are unclean; so let them not, after this year of theirs, approach the Sacred Mosque. And if ye fear poverty, soon will Allah enrich you, if He wills, out of His bounty, for Allah is All-knowing, All-wise.

According to Ahmad ibn Hanbal, these verses were followed to the letter at the times of Muhammad, when Jews and Christians, considered monotheists, were still allowed to Al-Masjid Al-Haram. The Umayyad caliph Umar II later forbade non-Muslims from entering mosques, and his ruling remains in practice in present-day Saudi Arabia. Today, the decision on whether non-Muslims should be allowed to enter mosques varies. With few exceptions, mosques in the Arabian Peninsula as well as Morocco do not allow entry to non-Muslims. For example, the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca is one of only two mosques in Morocco currently open to non-Muslims.

There are many other mosques in the West and Islamic world which non-Muslims are welcome to enter. Most mosques in the United States, for example, report receiving non-Muslim visitors every month. Many mosques throughout the United States welcome non-Muslims as a sign of openness to the rest of the community as well as to encourage conversions to Islam.

In modern-day Saudi Arabia, the Grand Mosque and all of Mecca are open only to Muslims. Likewise, Al-Masjid Al-Nabawi and the city of Medina that surrounds it are also off-limits to those who do not practice Islam. For mosques in other areas, it has most commonly been taken that non-Muslims may only enter mosques if granted permission to do so by Muslims, and if they have a legitimate reason. All entrants regardless of religious affiliation are expected to respect the rules and decorum for mosques.

In modern Turkey, non-Muslim tourists are allowed to enter any mosque, but there are some strict rules. Visiting a mosque is allowed only between prayers; visitors are required to wear long trousers and not to wear shoes, women must cover their heads; visitors are not allowed to interrupt praying Muslims, especially by taking photos of them; no loud talk is allowed; and no references to other religions are allowed (no crosses on necklaces, no cross gestures, etc.) Similar rules apply to mosques in Malaysia, where larger mosques that are also tourist attractions (such as the Masjid Negara) provide robes and headscarves for visitors who are deemed inappropriately attired.

In certain times and places, non-Muslims were expected to behave a certain way in the vicinity of a mosque: in some Moroccan cities, Jews were required to remove their shoes when passing by a mosque; in 18th-century Egypt, Jews and Christians had to dismount before several mosques in veneration of their sanctity.

The association of the mosque with education remained one of its main characteristics throughout history, and the school became an indispensable appendage to the mosque. From the earliest days of Islam, the mosque was the center of the Muslim community, a place for prayer, meditation, religious instruction, political discussion, and a school. Anywhere Islam took hold, mosques were established, and basic religious and educational instruction began.

The late 20th century saw an increase in the number of mosques used for political purposes. While some governments in the Muslim world have attempted to limit the content of Friday sermons to strictly religious topics, there are also independent preachers who deliver khutbas that address social and political issues, often in emotionally charged terms. Common themes include social inequalities, necessity of jihad in the face of injustice, and the universal struggle between good and evil. In Islamic countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, political subjects are preached by imams at Friday congregations on a regular basis. Mosques often serve as meeting points for political opposition in times of crisis.

Countries with a minority Muslim population are more likely than Muslim-majority countries of the Greater Middle East to use mosques as a way to promote civic participation. Studies of US Muslims have consistently shown a positive correlation between mosque attendance and political involvement. Some of the research connects civic engagement specifically with mosque attendance for social and religious activities other than prayer. American mosques host voter registration and civic participation drives that promote involving Muslims, who are often first- or second-generation immigrants, in the political process. As a result of these efforts as well as attempts at mosques to keep Muslims informed about the issues facing the Muslim community, regular mosque attendants are more likely to participate in protests, sign petitions, and otherwise be involved in politics. Research on Muslim civic engagement in other Western countries "is less conclusive but seems to indicate similar trends".

As they are considered important to the Muslim community, mosques, like other places of worship, can be at the heart of social conflicts. The Babri Mosque in India was the subject of such a conflict up until the early 1990s when it was demolished. Before a mutual solution could be devised, the mosque was destroyed on December 6, 1992, as the mosque was built by Babur allegedly on the site of a previous Hindu temple marking the birthplace of Rama. The controversy surrounded the mosque was directly linked to rioting in Bombay (present-day Mumbai) as well as bombings in 1993 that killed 257 people.

Bombings in February 2006 and June 2007 seriously damaged Iraq's al-Askari Mosque and exacerbated existing tensions. Other mosque bombings in Iraq, both before and after the February 2006 bombing, have been part of the conflict between the country's groups of Muslims. In June 2005, a suicide bombing killed at least 19 people at an Afghan Shia mosque near Jade Maivand. In April 2006, two explosions occurred at India's Jama Masjid. Following the al-Askari Mosque bombing in Iraq, imams and other Islamic leaders used mosques and Friday prayers as vehicles to call for calm and peace in the midst of widespread violence.

A study 2005 indicated that while support for suicide bombings is not correlated with personal devotion to Islam among Palestinian Muslims, it is correlated with mosque attendance because "participating in communal religious rituals of any kind likely encourages support for self-sacrificing behaviors that are done for the collective good."

Following the September 11 attacks, several American mosques were targeted in attacks ranging from simple vandalism to arson. Furthermore, the Jewish Defense League was suspected of plotting to bomb the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City, California. Similar attacks occurred throughout the United Kingdom following the 7 July 2005 London bombings. Outside the Western world, in June 2001, the Hassan Bek Mosque was the target of vandalism and attacks by hundreds of Israelis after a suicide bomber killed 19 people in a night club in Tel Aviv. Although mosquegoing is highly encouraged for men, it is permitted to stay at home when one feels at risk from Islamophobic persecution.

Although the Saudi involvement in Sunni mosques around the world can be traced back to the 1960s, it was not until later in the 20th century that the government of Saudi Arabia became a large influence in foreign Sunni mosques. Beginning in the 1980s, the Saudi Arabian government began to finance the construction of Sunni mosques in countries around the world. An estimated US$45 billion has been spent by the Saudi Arabian government financing mosques and Sunni Islamic schools in foreign countries. Ain al-Yaqeen, a Saudi newspaper, reported in 2002 that Saudi funds may have contributed to building as many as 1,500 mosques and 2,000 other Islamic centers.

Saudi citizens have also contributed significantly to mosques in the Islamic world, especially in countries where they see Muslims as poor and oppressed. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, in 1992, mosques in war-torn Afghanistan saw many contributions from Saudi citizens. The King Fahd Mosque in Culver City, California and the Islamic Cultural Center of Italy in Rome represent two of Saudi Arabia's largest investments in foreign mosques as former Saudi king Fahd bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud contributed US$8 million and US$50 million to the two mosques, respectively.

In the western world, and in the United States in particular, anti-Muslim sentiment and targeted domestic policy has created challenges for mosques and those looking to build them. There has been government and police surveillance of mosques in the US and local attempts to ban mosques and block constructions, despite data showing that in fact, most Americans opposing banning the building of mosques (79%) and the surveillance of U.S. mosques (63%) as shown in a 2018 study done by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding.

Since 2017, Chinese authorities have destroyed or damaged two-thirds of the mosques in China's Xinjiang province. Ningxia officials were notified on 3 August 2018 that the Weizhou Grand Mosque would be forcibly demolished because it had not received the proper permits before construction. Officials in the town said that the mosque had not been given proper building permits, because it is built in a Middle Eastern style and includes numerous domes and minarets. The residents of Weizhou alarmed each other through social media and finally stopped the mosque destruction by public demonstrations.

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2. ^ Longhurst, Christopher E; Theology of a Mosque: The Sacred Inspiring Form, Function and Design in Islamic Architecture, Lonaard Journal. Mar 2012, Vol. 2 Issue 8, p3-13. 11p. "Since submission to God is the essence of divine worship, the place of worship is intrinsic to Islam's self-identity. This 'place' is not a building per se but what is evidenced by the etymology of the word 'mosque' which derives from the Arabic 'masjid' meaning 'a place of sujud (prostration).'

3. Nuha N. N. Khoury (2009). "Mosque". In Juan Eduardo Campo (ed.). Encyclopedia of Islam. Infobase Publishing.

4. Patrick D. Gaffney (2004). "Masjid". In Richard C. Martin (ed.). Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World. MacMillan Reference.

5. For the word's origin from French and probable origin from Italian ^ moscheta, see "mosque, n.". OED Online. December 2011. Oxford University Press. [1]. For the derivation of moscheta from Arabic sajada see "mesquita, n.". OED Online. December 2011. Oxford University Press. [2]. For the probable origin of "sajada" from Aramaic, and the meanings of sajada and masjid in Arabic, see "masjid, n.". OED Online. December 2011. Oxford University Press. [3]. For the inclusion of Spanish mesquita, possible derivation from Nabataean , and the Aramaic , see Klein, E., A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language (Elsevier Publishing, 1966), p. 1007.

6. ^ Reid, Richard J. (12 January 2012). "The Islamic Frontier in Eastern Africa". A History of Modern Africa: 1800 to the Present. John Wiley and Sons. p. 106. ISBN 978-0-4706-5898-7.

7. ^ Mustafa Abu Sway. "The Holy Land, Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Qur'an, Sunnah and other Islamic Literary Source" (PDF). Central Conference of American Rabbis. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-28.

8. Hillenbrand, R. "Masdjid. I. In the central Islamic lands". In P. J. Bearman; Th. Bianquis; C.E. Bosworth; E. van Donzel; W. P. Heinrichs (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam Online. Brill Academic Publishers. ISSN 1573-3912.

9. ^ Wagner, William (2004) [2004-05-27]. How Islam Plans to Change the World. Kregel Publications. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-8254-3965-0. When the Moors were driven out of Spain in 1492, most of the mosques were converted into churches

10. ^ "'Id Prayers (Salatul 'Idain)". Compendium of Muslim Texts. University of Southern California. Archived from the original on December 23, 2005.

11. ^ "Religious Regimes and Prospects for Liberal Politics: Futures of Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-05-13.

12. ^ Statistiek, Centraal Bureau voor de. "Religie aan het begin van de 21ste eeuw". Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek.

13. "Religious Belief and National Belonging in Central and Eastern Europe: Final Topline" (PDF). Pew Research Center. 10 May 2017. p. 118.

14. ^ Creswell, K. A. C. (March 1926). "The Evolution of the Minaret, with Special Reference to Egypt-I". The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs. 48 (276): 134-140. JSTOR 862832.

15. ^ Mainzer, Klaus (June 1, 1996). "Art and Architecture". Symmetries of Nature: A Handbook for Philosophy of Nature and Science. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. p. 124. ISBN 978-3-11-012990-8. the dome arching over the believers like the spherical dome of the sky

16. Erzen, Jale Nejdet (2011), "Reading Mosques: Meaning and Architecture in Islam", The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 69 (1): 126-129, doi:10.1111/j.1540-6245.2010.01453.x, JSTOR 42635843

17. Abu al-Hasankok Ibn Muhammad Ibn Habib, Al-Mawardi (2000). The Ordinances of Government (Al-Ahkam al-Sultaniyya w'al-Wilayat al-Diniyya). Lebanon: Garnet Publishing. p. 184. ISBN 978-1-85964-140-8.

18. ^ Connecting Cultures, Inc. "Building Cultural Competency: Understanding Islam, Muslims, and Arab Culture". Connecting Cultures, Inc.: 15. Archived from the original (Doc) on July 24, 2006.

19. ^ Takim, Liyakatali (July 2004). "From Conversion to Conversation: Interfaith Dialogue in Post 9-11 America" (PDF). The Muslim World. 94 (3): 343-355. doi:10.1111/j.1478-1913.2004.00058.x. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 18, 2006. Liyakatali Takim is a professor at McMaster University

20. Qureshi, M. 1990. ^ The Role of the Mosque in Islam. New Delhi: International Islamic Publishers.

21. ^ Eade, John (1996). "Nationalism, Community, and the Islamization of Space in London". In Metcalf, Barbara Daly (ed.). Making Muslim Space in North America and Europe. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520204041. As one of the few mosques in Britain permitted to broadcast calls to prayer (azan), the mosque soon found itself at the center of a public debate about "noise pollution" when local non-Muslim residents began to protest.

22. Aubrey Westfall (2018). "Mosques and political engagement in Europe and North America". Project on Middle East Political Science.

23. ^ "Thousands of Xinjiang mosques destroyed or damaged, report finds". The Guardian. 25 September 2020.

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Stachowski, Marek (2017). Janyšková I.; Karlíková H.; Boček V. (eds.). Slawische Bezeichnungen für Moschee unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Polnischen, Schlesischen, Tschechischen und Slowakischen. pp. 361-369: Etymological research into Czech (=Studia Etymologica Brunensia 22), Brno.

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The first mosques were simple places of prayer for Muslims, and may have been open spaces rather than buildings. In the first stage of Islamic architecture, 650-750 CE, early mosques comprised open and closed covered spaces enclosed by walls, often with minarets from which calls to prayer were issued.

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The earliest identified Christian church was a house church founded between 233 and 256. During the 11th through 14th centuries, a wave of building of cathedrals and smaller parish churches occurred across Western Europe. A cathedral is a church, usually Roman Catholic, Anglican, Oriental Orthodox or Eastern Orthodox, housing the seat of a bishop.

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Sewu, an eighth century Mahayana Buddhist temple in Central Java, Indonesia

A Buddhist temple or Buddhist monastery is the place of worship for Buddhists, the followers of Buddhism. They include the structures called vihara, chaitya, stupa, wat and pagoda in different regions and languages. Temples in Buddhism represent the pure land or pure environment of a Buddha. Traditional Buddhist temples are designed to inspire inner and outer peace.

Its architecture and structure varies from region to region. Usually, the temple consists not only of its buildings, but also the surrounding environment. The Buddhist temples are designed to symbolize five elements: fire, air, water, earth and void (space).

The design of temples in India was influenced by the idea of a place of worship as a representation of the universe. For Buddhist temple complexes one tall temple is often centrally located and surrounded by smaller temples and walls. This center surrounded by oceans, lesser mountains and a huge wall.

A Chaitya, Chaitya hall or Chaitya-griha refers to a shrine, sanctuary, temple or prayer hall in Indian religions. The term is most common in Buddhism, where it refers to a space with a stupa and a rounded apse at the end opposite the entrance, and a high roof with a rounded profile. Strictly speaking, the chaitya is the stupa itself, and the Indian buildings are chaitya halls, but this distinction is often not observed. Many of the early Chaitya were rock-cut, as in Karla caves or Ajanta.

Tall circular Buddhist temple, early 1st Century CE, Mathura Museum

Some of the earliest free-standing temples may have been of a circular type. Ashoka also built the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya circa 250 BCE, a circular structure, in order to protect the Bodhi tree under which the Buddha had found enlightenment. The Bairat Temple is also a round structure, which can be seen through archaeological remains. Representations of this early temple structure are found on a 100 BCE relief sculpted on the railing of the stupa at Bhārhut, as well as in Sanchi. From that period the Diamond throne remains, an almost intact slab of sandstone decorated with reliefs, which Ashoka had established at the foot of the Bodhi tree. These circular-type temples were also found in later rock-hewn caves such as Tulja Caves or Guntupalli.

Borobudur in Central Java, the world's largest Buddhist temple

Buddhism is the second oldest religion in Indonesia after Hinduism, which arrived from India around the second century. The history of Buddhism in Indonesia is closely related to the history of Hinduism, as a number of empires influenced by Indian culture were established around the same period. The oldest Buddhist archaeological site in Indonesia is arguably the Batujaya stupas complex in Karawang, West Java. The oldest relic in Batujaya was estimated to originate from the 2nd century, while the latest dated from the 12th century. Subsequently, significant numbers of Buddhist sites were found in Jambi, Palembang and Riau provinces in Sumatra, as well as in Central and East Java. The Indonesian archipelago has, over the centuries, witnessed the rise and fall of powerful Buddhist empires, such as the Sailendra dynasty, the Mataram and Srivijaya empires.

According to some Chinese source, a Chinese Buddhist monk I-tsing on his pilgrim journey to India, witnessed the powerful maritime empire of Srivijaya based on Sumatra in the 7th century. A number of Buddhist historical heritages can be found in Indonesia, including the 8th century Borobudur mandala monument and Sewu temple in Central Java, Batujaya in West Java, Muaro Jambi, Muara Takus and Bahal temple in Sumatra, and numerous of statues or inscriptions from the earlier history of Indonesian Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms.

Candi tinggi, a temple within the Muaro Jambi temple compound

During the era of Kediri, Singhasari and Majapahit empire, Buddhism-identified as Dharma ri Kasogatan-was acknowledged as one of kingdom's official religions along with Hinduism. Although some of kings might favour Hinduism over another, nevertheless the harmony, toleration and even syncretism were promoted as manifested in Bhinneka Tunggal Ika national motto, coined from Kakawin Sutasoma, written by Mpu Tantular to promotes tolerance between Hindus (Shivaites) and Buddhists. The classical era of ancient Java also had produces some of the exquisite examples of Buddhist arts, such as the statue of Prajnaparamita and the statue of Buddha Vairochana and Boddhisttva Padmapani and Vajrapani in Mendut temple.

In contemporary Indonesian Buddhist perspective, refers to a shrine, either ancient or new. Several contemporary in Indonesia for example, contain the actual-size replica or reconstruction of famous Buddhist temples, such as the replica of Pawon and Plaosan's perwara (small) temples. In Buddhism, the role of a candi as a shrine is sometimes interchangeable with a stupa, a domed structure to store Buddhist relics or the ashes of cremated Buddhist priests, patrons or benefactors.

Buddhist temple of Kinkaku-ji, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO

Japanese Buddhist temples typically include a Main Hall.

A distinctive feature is the chinjusha, a Shinto shrine devoted to the temple's kami. Buddhism co-existed with Shinto, but in the 8th century Buddhism became the state religion and Buddhist temples were built. High concentration of important Japanese Buddhist temples can be found in Japanese culture heartland of Kansai region, especially in Nara and Kyoto.

Wat Benchamabophit

Buddhist temples in Thailand are known as wat, from the Pāḷi vāṭa, meaning "enclosure". Wat architecture adheres to consistent principles. A wat, with few exceptions, consists of two parts: the Phutthawat and the Sangkhawat. The Phutthawat ( Thai: พุทธาวาส) is the area which is dedicated to Buddha. While the Sangkhawat is the area which is dedicated to Sangha Buddhist monastic community.

Jetavanaramaya tallest stupa in the ancient world

Buddhist temples in Sri Lanla are known as 'Pansala' or 'Viharaya' in Sinhalese. Common features in Sri Lankan temples include Stupa, Bo Tree and Temple Buildings. Oldest living human-planted Bodhi Tree in the world Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi and some of the largest Stupa in the world including Ruwanwelisaya, Jetavanaramaya and Abhayagiri vihāra located in Sri Lankan temples.

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A Buddhist temple or Buddhist monastery is the place of worship for Buddhists, the followers of Buddhism. They include the structures called vihara, chaitya, stupa, wat and pagoda in different regions and languages. Temples in Buddhism represent the pure land or pure environment of a Buddha.

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A synagogue, sometimes referred to by the Yiddish term shul and referred to by Reform communities as a temple, is a Jewish house of worship. Synagogues have a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels), where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies (including weddings, b'nai mitzvah, confirmations, choir performances, or even children's plays), have rooms for study, social hall(s), administrative and charitable offices, classrooms for religious school and Hebrew school, sometimes Jewish preschools, and often have many places to sit and congregate; display commemorative, historic, or modern artwork throughout; and sometimes have items of some Jewish historical significance or history about the synagogue itself on display.

Synagogues are consecrated spaces used for the purpose of Jewish prayer, study, assembly, and reading of the Torah (read in its entirety once a year, or in some synagogues on a triennial cycle, in weekly Torah portions during religious services). However, a synagogue is not always necessary for Jewish worship, due to adaptations during times of Jewish persecution in countries and regions that banned Judaism, frequently destroying and/or reappropriating synagogues into churches or even government buildings. (Jewish law, or Mitzvot, from the Mishnah - the "Oral Torah") states that communal Jewish worship can be carried out wherever a (a group of at least 10 Jewish adults) is assembled, often (but not necessarily) led by a rabbi. Worship can also happen alone or with fewer than 10 people, but there are certain prayers that are considered by halakha as solely communal, and these can therefore be recited only by a minyan, depending on sect of Judaism. In terms of its specific ritual and liturgical functions, the synagogue does not replace the symbol of the long-destroyed Temple in Jerusalem (1st or 2nd Temple).

The Hebrew term is "house of assembly" The Greek-derived word synagogue also means "assembly" and is commonly used in English. Ashkenazi Jews have traditionally used the Yiddish term (from the ancient Greek schola (which is also the source of the English "school") via the German Schule, "school") in everyday speech, and many continue to do so in English.

Sephardi Jews and Romaniote Jews generally use the term kal (from the Hebrew ḳahal, meaning "community"). Spanish Jews call the synagogue an esnoga and Portuguese Jews call it a sinagoga. Persian Jews and some Karaite Jews also use the term , which is derived from Aramaic, and some Mizrahi Jews use kenis or qnis.

Although synagogues existed a long time before the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, communal worship in the time while the Temple still stood focused mostly on sacrificial offerings () brought by the priests (, hereditary priests descending from Aaron in a direct male line) in the Temple in Jerusalem. The all-day Yom Kippur service was an event in which the congregation both observed the movements of the High Priest ( kohen gadol) as he presided over the day's traditions and processions, and administered prayers for success.

According to Jewish tradition, the men of the Great Assembly (around 5th century BCE) formalized and standardized the language of the Jewish prayers. Prior to that people prayed as they saw fit, with each individual praying in his or her own way, and there were no standard prayers that were recited.

Johanan ben Zakai, one of the leaders at the end of the Second Temple period, advocated creating individual houses of worship wherever Jews were.

Purpose-built spaces for Jewish worship, or rooms originally constructed for some other purpose but reserved for formal, communal prayer[dubious ], however, existed before the destruction of the Second Temple. The earliest archaeological evidence comes from Egypt, where stone proseuche dedication inscriptions dating from the 3rd century BCE prove that Jewish proseuches existed by that date. More than a dozen Jewish (and possibly Samaritan) Second Temple period synagogues have been identified by archaeologists in Israel, and in other countries belonging to the Hellenistic world.

Any Jew or group of Jews can build a synagogue. Synagogues have been constructed by ancient Jewish leaders, by wealthy patrons, as part of a wide range of human institutions including secular educational institutions, governments, and hotels, by the entire Jewish community of living in a particular village or region, or by sub-groups of Jewish people arrayed according to occupation, ethnicity (e.g., the Sephardic, Yemenite, Romaniote or Persian Jews of a town), style of religious observance (e.g., Reform or Orthodox synagogue), or by the followers of a particular rabbi (in very small congregations or ultra-orthodox Hasidism).

It has been theorized that the synagogue became a place of worship in the region upon the destruction of the Second Temple during the First Jewish-Roman War; however, others speculate that there had been places of prayer, apart from the Temple, during the Hellenistic period. The popularization of prayer over sacrifice during the years prior to the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE had prepared the Jews for life in the diaspora, where prayer would serve as the focus of Jewish worship.

Despite the certain existence of synagogue-like spaces prior to the First Jewish-Roman War, the synagogue emerged as a focal point for Jewish worship upon the destruction of the Temple. For Jews living in the wake of the Revolt, the synagogue functioned as a "portable system of worship". Within the synagogue, Jews worshipped by way of prayer rather than sacrifices, which had previously served as the main form of worship within the Second Temple.

In 1995, Howard Clark Kee argued that synagogues were not a developed feature of Jewish life prior to the First Jewish-Roman War (66-73 CE). Kee interpreted his findings as evidence that the mentions of synagogues in the New Testament, including Jesus's visitations of synagogues in various Jewish settlements in Israel, were anachronistic. However, by 2018, Mordechai Aviam reported that there were now at least nine synagogues excavated known to pre-date the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 CE, including in Magdala, Gamla, Masada, Herodium, Modi'in (Kh. Umm el-'Umdan), Qiryat Sepher (Kh. Bad 'Issa), and Kh. Diab. Aviam concluded that he thought almost every Jewish settlement at the time, whether it was a polis or a village, had a synagogue.

Modi'in - Discovered between Modi'in and Latrun is the oldest synagogue within modern Israel that has been found to date, built during the second century BCE. It includes three rooms and a nearby mikve.

Rabbi and philosopher Maimonides (1138-1204) described the various customs in his day with respect to local synagogues:

Synagogues and houses of study must be treated with respect. They are swept and sprinkled [with water] to lay the dust. In Spain and the Maghreb, in Babylonia and in the Holy Land, it is customary to kindle lamps in the synagogues and to spread mats on the floor upon which the worshippers sit. In the lands of Edom ( Christendom), they sit in synagogues upon chairs [or benches].

The Samaritan house of worship is also called a synagogue. During the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE, during the Hellenistic period, the Greek word used in the Diaspora by Samaritans and Jews was the same: proseucheμ (literally, a place of prayer); a later, 3rd or 4th century CE inscription, uses a similar Greek term: eukteμrion (prayer house). The oldest Samaritan synagogue discovered so far is from Delos in the Aegean Islands, with an inscription dated between 250 and 175 BCE, while most Samaritan synagogues excavated in the wider Land of Israel and ancient Samaria in particular, were built during the 4th-7th centuries, at the very end of the Roman and throughout the Byzantine period.

The elements which distinguish Samaritan synagogues from contemporary Jewish ones are:

Orthography. When the Samaritan script is used, there are some Hebrew words which would be spelled in a way typical only for the Samaritan Pentateuch, for instance "forever" is written 'lmw instead of l'lm. When Greek is the language used in inscriptions, typically, Samaritans may contract two Hebrew words into one, such har (mountain) and Gerizim becoming, in Greek, Argarizein.

Orientation: the façade, or entrance of the Samaritan synagogue, is typically facing towards Mount Gerizim, which is the most holy site to Samaritans, while Jewish synagogues would be oriented towards Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.

Decoration: the mosaic floor and other architectural elements or artifacts are sometimes decorated with typical symbols. As the Samaritans have historically adhered more strictly to the commandment forbidding the creation of any "graven image", they would not use any depictions of man or beast. Representations of the signs of the zodiac, of human figures or even Greek deities such as the god Helios, as seen in Byzantine-period Jewish synagogues, would be unimaginable in Samaritan buildings of any period.

A representation of Mount Gerizim is a clear indication of Samaritan identity. On the other hand, although the existence of a Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim is both mentioned by Josephus and confirmed by archaeological excavation at its summit, the temple's early destruction in the 2nd century BCE led to its memory disappearing from Samaritan tradition, so that no temple-related items would be found in Samaritan synagogue depictions. Religious implements, such as are also known from ancient Jewish synagogue mosaics (menorah, shofar, shewbread table, trumpets, incense shovels, and specifically the façade of what looks like a temple or a Torah shrine) are also present in Samaritan ones, but the objects are always related to the desert Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant within the Tabernacle, or the Torah shrine in the synagogue itself. Samaritans believe that at the end of time the Tabernacle and its utensils will be recovered from the place they were buried on Mount Gerizim and as such play an important role in Samaritan beliefs. Since the same artists, such as mosaicists, worked for all ethno-religious communities of the time, some depictions might be identical in Samaritan and Jewish synagogues, Christian churches and pagan temples, but their significance would differ.

Missing from Samaritan synagogue floors would be images often found in Jewish ones: the lulav (palm-branch) and etrog (lemon-like fruit) have a different ritual use by Samaritans celebrating Sukkot, and do not appear on mosaic floors.

Ancient Samaritan synagogues are mentioned by literary sources or have been found by archaeologists in the Diaspora, in the wider Holy Land, and specifically in Samaria.

Zur Natan synagogue, c. 29 km west of Nablus and built in the 5th century CE

In the New Testament, the word appears 56 times, mostly in the Synoptic Gospels, but also in the Gospel of John ( John 9:22; 18:20) and the Book of Revelation ( Rev. 2:9; 3:9). It is used in the sense of 'assembly' in the Epistle of James ( James 2:2). Alternatively, the epistle of James (in Greek, clearly Ἰάκωβος or יעקב, anglicized to Jacob) refers to a place of assembly that was indeed Jewish, with Jacob ben Joseph perhaps an elder there. The specific word in James (Jacob) 2:2 could easily be rendered "synagogue", from the Greek συναγωγὴν.

During the first Christian centuries, Jewish Christian are hypothesized to have used houses of worship known in academic literature as synagogue-churches. Scholars have claimed to have identified such houses of worship of the Jews who had accepted Jesus as the Messiah in Jerusalem and Nazareth.

There is no set blueprint for synagogues and the architectural shapes and interior designs of synagogues vary greatly. In fact, the influence from other local religious buildings can often be seen in synagogue arches, domes and towers.

Historically, synagogues were built in the prevailing architectural style of their time and place. Thus, the synagogue in Kaifeng, China, looked very like Chinese temples of that region and era, with its outer wall and open garden in which several buildings were arranged. The styles of the earliest synagogues resembled the temples of other cults of the Eastern Roman Empire. The surviving synagogues of medieval Spain are embellished with mudéjar plasterwork. The surviving medieval synagogues in Budapest and Prague are typical Gothic structures.

With the emancipation of Jews in Western European countries, which not only enabled Jews to enter fields of enterprise from which they were formerly barred, but gave them the right to build synagogues without needing special permissions, synagogue architecture blossomed. Large Jewish communities wished to show not only their wealth but also their newly acquired status as citizens by constructing magnificent synagogues. These were built across Western Europe and in the United States in all of the historicist or revival styles then in fashion. Thus there were Neoclassical, Renaissance Revival architecture, Neo-Byzantine, Romanesque Revival, Moorish Revival, Gothic Revival, and Greek Revival. There are Egyptian Revival synagogues and even one Mayan Revival synagogue. In the 19th century and early 20th century heyday of historicist architecture, however, most historicist synagogues, even the most magnificent ones, did not attempt a pure style, or even any particular style, and are best described as eclectic.

In the post-war era, synagogue architecture abandoned historicist styles for modernism.

Bimah (platform)

All synagogues contain a , a large, raised, reader's platform (called teḇah (reading dais) by Sephardim), where the Torah scroll is placed to be read. In Sephardi synagogues and traditional Ashkenazi synagogues it is also used as the prayer leader's reading desk.

In Ashkenazi synagogues, the Torah was read on a reader's table located in the center of the room, while the leader of the prayer service, the hazzan, stood at his own lectern or table, facing the Ark. In Sephardic synagogues, the table for reading the Torah (reading dais) was commonly placed at the opposite side of the room from the Torah Ark, leaving the center of the floor empty for the use of a ceremonial procession carrying the Torah between the Ark and the reading table. Most contemporary synagogues feature a lectern for the rabbi.

The Torah Ark, called in Hebrew ארון קודש‎ Aron Kodesh or 'holy chest', and alternatively called the heikhal-היכל‎ or 'temple' by Sephardic Jews, is a cabinet in which the Torah scrolls are kept.

The ark in a synagogue is almost always positioned in such a way such that those who face it are facing towards Jerusalem. Thus, sanctuary seating plans in the Western world generally face east, while those east of Israel face west. Sanctuaries in Israel face towards Jerusalem. Occasionally synagogues face other directions for structural reasons; in such cases, some individuals might turn to face Jerusalem when standing for prayers, but the congregation as a whole does not.

The Ark is reminiscent of the Ark of the Covenant, which held the tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments. This is the holiest spot in a synagogue, equivalent to the Holy of Holies. The Ark is often closed with an ornate curtain, the parochet פרוכת‎, which hangs outside or inside the ark doors.

Ner tamid of the Abudarham Synagogue in Gibraltar

Other traditional features include a continually lit lamp or lantern, usually electric in contemporary synagogues, called the ner tamid (נר תמיד‎), the "Eternal Light", used as a way to honor the Divine Presence.

A synagogue may be decorated with artwork, but in the Rabbinic and Orthodox tradition, three-dimensional sculptures and depictions of the human body are not allowed as these are considered akin to idolatry.

Originally, synagogues were made devoid of much furniture, the Jewish congregants in Spain, the Maghreb (North Africa), Babylonia, the Land of Israel and Yemen having a custom to sit upon the floor, which had been strewn with mats and cushions, rather than upon chairs or benches. In other European towns and cities, however, Jewish congregants would sit upon chairs and benches. Today, the custom has spread in all places to sit upon chairs and benches.

Until the 19th century, in an Ashkenazi synagogue, all seats most often faced the Torah Ark. In a Sephardic synagogue, seats were usually arranged around the perimeter of the sanctuary, but when the worshipers stood up to pray, everyone faced the Ark.

Many current synagogues have an elaborate chair named for the prophet Elijah, which is only sat upon during the ceremony of Brit milah.

In ancient synagogues, a special chair placed on the wall facing Jerusalem and next to the Torah Shrine was reserved for the prominent members of the congregation and for important guests. Such a stone-carved and inscribed seat was discovered at archaeological excavations in the synagogue at Chorazin in Galilee and dates from the 4th-6th century; another one was discovered at the Delos Synagogue, complete with a footstool.

Removing one's shoes

In Yemen, the Jewish custom was to remove one's shoes immediately prior to entering the synagogue, a custom that had been observed by Jews in other places in earlier times. The same practice of removing one's shoes before entering the synagogue was also largely observed among Jews in Morocco in the early 20th century. On the island of Djerba in Tunisia, Jews still remove their shoes when entering a synagogue. The custom of removing one's shoes is no longer practiced in Israel, the United Kingdom, or the United States, and which custom, as in former times, was dependent upon whether or not the wearer considered it a thing of contempt to stand before God while wearing shoes. In Christian countries, where it was thought not offensive to stand before a king while wearing shoes, it was likewise permitted to do so in a house of prayer. However, in Karaite Judaism, the custom of removing one's shoes prior to entering a synagogue is still observed worldwide.

In Orthodox synagogues, men and women do not sit together. The synagogue features a partition (mechitza) dividing the men's and women's seating areas, or a separate women's section located on a balcony.

The German-Jewish Reform movement, which arose in the early 19th century, made many changes to the traditional look of the synagogue, keeping with its desire to simultaneously stay Jewish yet be accepted by the surrounding culture.

The first Reform synagogue, which opened in Hamburg in 1811, introduced changes that made the synagogue look more like a church. These included: the installation of an organ to accompany the prayers (even on Shabbat, when musical instruments are proscribed by halakha), a choir to accompany the hazzan, and vestments for the synagogue rabbi to wear.

In following decades, the central reader's table, the Bimah, was moved to the front of the Reform sanctuary-previously unheard-of in Orthodox synagogues.

Gender separation was also removed.

Synagogues often take on a broader role in modern Jewish communities and may include additional facilities such as a catering hall, kosher kitchen, religious school, library, day care center and a smaller chapel for daily services.

Since many Orthodox and some non-Orthodox Jews prefer to collect a minyan (a quorum of ten) rather than pray alone, they commonly assemble at pre-arranged times in offices, living rooms, or other spaces when these are more convenient than formal synagogue buildings. A room or building that is used this way can become a dedicated small synagogue or prayer room. Among Ashkenazi Jews they are traditionally called shtiebel (, pl. shtiebelekh or shtiebels, Yiddish for "little house"), and are found in Orthodox communities worldwide.

Another type of communal prayer group, favored by some contemporary Jews, is the (, pl. chavurot, ), or prayer fellowship. These groups meet at a regular place and time, either in a private home or in a synagogue or other institutional space. In antiquity, the Pharisees lived near each other in chavurot and dined together to ensure that none of the food was unfit for consumption.

List of "great synagogues"

Russia, Ukraine and Belarus

Turkey (European part)

World's largest synagogues

The largest synagogue in the world is the Great Beth Midrash Gur, in Jerusalem, Israel, whose main sanctuary seats up to 20,000, and has an area of approximately 7,500 m² (81,000 sq ft), while the entire complex has an area of approximately 35,000 m² (380,000 sq ft). Construction on the edifice took more than 25 years.

The Dohány Street Synagogue in Budapest, Hungary, is the largest synagogue in Europe by square footage and number of seats. It seats 3,000, and has an area of 1,200 m² (13,000 sq ft) and height of 26 m (85 ft) (apart from the towers, which are 43 m or 141 ft).

The Synagogue of Trieste is the largest synagogue in Western Europe.

The Great Synagogue of Rome is one of the greatest in Europe.

The Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam, also called "Esnoga", was built in 1675. At that time it was the largest synagogue in the world. Apart from the buildings surrounding the synagogue, it has an area of 1,008 m² (10,850 sq ft), is 19.5 meters (64 ft) high. It was built to accommodate 1227 men and 440 women.

Szeged Synagogue is located in Szeged, Hungary, seats 1,340 and has height of 48.5 m (159 ft).

The Sofia Synagogue is located in Sofia, Bulgaria, seating about 1,200.

The Subotica Synagogue is located in Subotica, Serbia, seating more than 900.

Great Synagogue (Plzeň) in the Czech Republic is the second-largest synagogue in Europe, and the third-largest in the world.

Congregation Yetev Lev D'Satmar (Rodney Street, Brooklyn) is also said to seat "several thousand".

Temple Emanu-El of New York, a Reform Temple, is located in New York City, with an area of 3,523 m² (37,920 sq ft), seating 2,500. It is the largest Reform synagogue in the world.

Congregation Yetev Lev D'Satmar (Hooper Street, Brooklyn) seats between 2,000 and 4,000 congregants.

The main sanctuary of Adas Israel Congregation (Washington, D.C.) seats 1,500.

Temple Emanu-El (Miami Beach, Florida) located in Miami Beach, Florida, seats approximately 1,400 people.

Congregation Shaare Zion, an Orthodox Sephardic synagogue located in Brooklyn, New York, is the largest Syrian Jewish congregation in New York City. It is attended by over 1,000 worshipers on weekends.

Beth Tzedec Congregation in Toronto, Ontario, is the largest Conservative synagogue in North America.

Temple Israel, a Reform synagogue in Memphis, Tennessee, seats 1,335 to 1,500 people in its main sanctuary. The massive synagogue complex contains over 11,600 m² (125,000 sq ft) on 12 hectares (30 acres).

World's oldest synagogues

The oldest Samaritan synagogue, the Delos Synagogue, dates from between 150 and 128 BCE, or earlier and is located on the island of Delos.[49][unreliable source? ]

The synagogue of Dura Europos, a Seleucid city in north eastern Syria, dates from the third century CE. It is unique. The walls were painted with figural scenes from the Old Testament. The paintings included Abraham and Isaac, Moses and Aaron, Solomon, Samuel and Jacob, Elijah and Ezekiel. The synagogue chamber, with its surviving paintings, is reconstructed in the National Museum in Damascus.

The Old Synagogue in Erfurt, Germany, parts of which date to c.1100, is the oldest intact synagogue building in Europe. It is now used as a museum of local Jewish history.

The Kochangadi Synagogue (1344 CE to 1789 CE) in Kochi in the Kerala, built by the Malabar Jews. It was destroyed by Tipu Sultan in 1789 CE and was never rebuilt. An inscription tablet from this synagogue is the oldest relic from any synagogue in India. Eight other synagogues exist in Kerala though not in active use anymore.

The Paradesi Synagogue is the oldest active synagogue in the Commonwealth of Nations, located in Kochi, Kerala, in India. It was built in 1568 by Paradesi community in the Kingdom of Cochin. Paradesi is a word used in several Indian languages, and the literal meaning of the term is "foreigners", applied to the synagogue because it was historically used by "White Jews", a mixture of Jews of the Middle East, and European exiles. It is also referred to as the Cochin Jewish Synagogue or the Mattancherry Synagogue. The synagogue is located in the quarter of Old Cochin known as Jew Town and is the only one of the eight synagogues in the area still in use.

Jew's Court, Steep Hill, Lincoln, England, is arguably the oldest synagogue in Europe in current use.

Painting of the interior of the Portuguese Synagogue (Amsterdam) by Emanuel de Witte (c. 1680)

The Worms Synagogue in Germany, built in 1175 and razed on Kristallnacht in 1938, was painstakingly reconstructed using many of the original stones. It is still in use as a synagogue.

The Synagogue of El Transito of Toledo, Spain, was built in 1356 by Samuel ha-Levi, treasurer of King Pedro I of Castile. This is one of the best examples of Mudéjar architecture in Spain. The design of the synagogue recalls the Nasrid style of architecture that was employed during the same period in the decorations of the palace of the Alhambra in Granada as well as the Mosque of Córdoba. Since 1964, this site has hosted a Sephardi museum.

The Hurva Synagogue, located in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, was Jerusalem's main Ashkenazi synagogue from the 16th century until 1948, when it was destroyed by the Arab Legion several days after the conquest of the city. After the Six-Day War, an arch was built to mark the spot where the synagogue stood. A complete reconstruction, to plans drawn up by architect Nahum Meltzer, opened in March 2010.

The Nidhe Israel Synagogue ("Bridgetown Synagogue") of Barbados, located in the capital city of Bridgetown, was first built in 1654. It was destroyed in the hurricane of 1831 and reconstructed in 1833.[50]

The Curaçao synagogue or Snoa in Willemstad, Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles was built by Sephardic Portuguese Jews from Amsterdam and Recife, Brazil. It is modeled after the Esnoga in Amsterdam. Congregation Mikvé Israel built this synagogue in 1692; it was reconstructed in 1732.

The Bialystoker Synagogue on New York's Lower East Side, is located in a landmark building dating from 1826 that was originally a Methodist Episcopal Church. The building is made of quarry stone mined locally on Pitt Street, Manhattan. It is an example of federal architecture. The ceilings and walls are hand-painted with zodiac frescos, and the sanctuary is illuminated by 40-foot (12.19 m) stained glass windows. The bimah and floor-to-ceiling ark are handcarved.

The Great Synagogue of Florence, Tempio Maggiore, Florence, 1874-1882, is an example of the magnificent, cathedral-like synagogues built in almost every major European city in the 19th century and early 20th century.

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A synagogue, sometimes referred to by the Yiddish term shul and referred to by Reform communities as a temple, is a Jewish house of worship.

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Elements in a Hindu temple architecture

A Hindu temple, also known as Mandir, Devasthanam, Pura, or , is a sacred place where Hindus worship and show their devotion to deities through worship, sacrifice, and prayers. It is considered the house of the god to whom it is dedicated. Hindu temple architecture, which makes extensive use of squares and circles, has its roots in Vedic traditions, which also influence the temples' construction and symbolism. Through astronomical numbers and particular alignments connected to the temple's location and the relationship between the deity and the worshipper, the temple's design also illustrates the idea of recursion and the equivalency of the macrocosm and the microcosm. A temple incorporates all elements of the Hindu cosmos-presenting the good, the evil and the human, as well as the elements of the Hindu sense of cyclic time and the essence of life-symbolically presenting dharma, artha, kama, moksha, and karma.

The spiritual principles symbolically represented in Hindu temples are given in the ancient Sanskrit texts of India (for example, the Vedas and Upanishads), while their structural rules are described in various ancient Sanskrit treatises on architecture ( Bṛhat Saṃhitā, Vāstu Śāstras). The layout, the motifs, the plan and the building process recite ancient rituals, geometric symbolisms, and reflect beliefs and values innate within various schools of Hinduism. A Hindu temple is a spiritual destination for many Hindus, as well as landmarks around which ancient arts, community celebrations and the economy have flourished.

Hindu temples come in many styles, are situated in diverse locations, deploy different construction methods and are adapted to different deities and regional beliefs, yet almost all of them share certain core ideas, symbolism and themes. They are found in South Asia, particularly India and Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, in Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia, and countries such as Canada, Fiji, France, Guyana, Kenya, Mauritius, the Netherlands, South Africa, Suriname, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries with a significant Hindu population. The current state and outer appearance of Hindu temples reflect arts, materials and designs as they evolved over two millennia; they also reflect the effect of conflicts between Hinduism and Islam since the 12th century. The Swaminarayanan Akshardham in Robbinsville, New Jersey, between the New York and Philadelphia metropolitan areas, was inaugurated in 2014 as one of the world's largest Hindu temples.

A Hindu temple reflects a synthesis of arts, the ideals of dharma, beliefs, values and the way of life cherished under Hinduism. It is a link between man, deities, and the Universal Puruṣa in a sacred space. It represents the triple-knowledge (trayi- vidya) of the Vedic vision by mapping the relationships between the cosmos ( brahmaṇḍa) and the cell (pinda) by a unique plan based on astronomical numbers. Subhash Kak sees the temple form and its iconography to be a natural expansion of Vedic ideology related to recursion, change and equivalence.

The 9x9 (81) grid "Parama Sayika" layout plan (above) found in large ceremonial Hindu Temples. It is one of many grids used to build Hindu temples. In this structure of symmetry, each concentric layer has significance. The outermost layer, Paisachika padas, signifies aspects of Asuras and evil; while the inner Devika padas layer signifies aspects of Devas and good. In between the good and evil is the concentric layer of Manusha padas, signifying human life. All these layers surround Brahma padas, which signifies creative energy and the site for a temple's primary murti for darsana. Finally at the very center of the Brahma padas is the Garbhagriha (Purusa Space), signifying the Universal Principle present in everything and everyone.

In ancient Indian texts, a temple is a place of pilgrimage, known in India as a Tirtha. It is a sacred site whose ambience and design attempts to symbolically condense the ideal tenets of the Hindu way of life. In a Hindu temple, all the cosmic components that produce and maintain life are there, from fire to water, from depictions of the natural world to gods, from genders that are feminine or masculine to those that are everlasting and universal.

Susan Lewandowski states that the underlying principle in a Hindu temple is the belief that all things are one, that everything is connected. The pilgrim is welcomed through 64-grid or 81-grid mathematically structured spaces, a network of art, pillars with carvings and statues that display and celebrate the four important and necessary principles of human life-the pursuit of (prosperity, wealth), of (pleasure, sex), of (virtues, ethical life) and of (release, self-knowledge). At the centre of the temple, typically below and sometimes above or next to the deity, is mere hollow space with no decoration, symbolically representing Purusa, the Supreme Principle, the sacred Universal, one without form, which is omnipresent, connects everything, and is the essence of everyone. A Hindu temple is meant to encourage reflection, facilitate purification of one's mind, and trigger the process of inner realization within the devotee. The specific process is left to the devotee's school of belief. The primary deity of different Hindu temples varies to reflect this spiritual spectrum.

In Hindu tradition, there is no dividing line between the secular and the lonely sacred. In the same spirit, Hindu temples are not just sacred spaces; they are also secular spaces. Their meaning and purpose have extended beyond spiritual life to social rituals and daily life, offering thus a social meaning. Some temples have served as a venue to mark festivals, to celebrate arts through dance and music, to get married or commemorate marriages, the birth of a child, other significant life events or the death of a loved one. In political and economic life, Hindu temples have served as a venue for succession within dynasties and landmarks around which economic activity thrived.

Almost all Hindu temples take two forms: a house or a palace. A house-themed temple is a simple shelter that serves as a deity's home. The temple is a place where the devotee visits, just like he or she would visit a friend or relative. The use of moveable and immoveable images is mentioned by Pāṇini. In the Bhakti school of Hinduism, temples are venues for puja, which is a hospitality ritual, where the deity is honored, and where devotee calls upon, attends to and connects with the deity. In other schools of Hinduism, the person may simply perform , or meditation, or yoga, or introspection in his or her temple. Palace-themed temples often incorporate more elaborate and monumental architecture.

The appropriate site for a temple, suggests ancient Sanskrit texts, is near water and gardens, where lotus and flowers bloom, where swans, ducks and other birds are heard, and where animals rest without fear of injury or harm. These harmonious places were recommended in these texts with the explanation that such are the places where gods play, and thus the best site for Hindu temples.

The gods always play where lakes are,
where the sun's rays are warded off by umbrellas of lotus leaf clusters,
and where clear waterpaths are made by swans
whose breasts toss the white lotus hither and thither,
where swans, ducks, curleys and paddy birds are heard,
and animals rest nearby in the shade of Nicula trees on the river banks.

The gods always play where rivers have for their braclets
the sound of curleys and the voice of swans for their speech,
water as their garment, carps for their zone,
the flowering trees on their banks as earrings,
the confluence of rivers as their hips,
raised sand banks as breasts and plumage of swans their mantle.

The gods always play where groves are near, rivers, mountains and springs, and in towns with pleasure gardens.

While major Hindu temples are recommended at sangams (confluence of rivers), river banks, lakes and seashore, Brhat Samhita and Puranas suggest temples may also be built where a natural source of water is not present. Here too, they recommend that a pond be built preferably in front or to the left of the temple with water gardens. If water is neither present naturally nor by design, water is symbolically present at the consecration of the temple or the deity. Temples may also be built, suggests Visnudharmottara in Part III of Chapter 93, inside caves and carved stones, on hill tops affording peaceful views, on mountain slopes overlooking beautiful valleys, inside forests and hermitages, next to gardens, or at the head of a town street.

Ancient builders of Hindu temples created manuals of architecture, called Vastu-Sastra (literally "science" of dwelling; vas-tu is a composite Sanskrit word; vas means "reside", tu means "you"); these contain Vastu-Vidya (literally, knowledge of dwelling) and Sastra meaning system or knowledge in Sanskrit. There exist many Vastu-Sastras on the art of building temples, such as one by Thakkura Pheru, describing where and how temples should be built. Sanskrit manuals have been found in India since the 6th century CE. Vastu-Sastra manuals included chapters on home construction, town planning, and how efficient villages, towns and kingdoms integrated temples, water bodies and gardens within them to achieve harmony with nature. While it is unclear, states Barnett, as to whether these temple and town planning texts were theoretical studies and if or when they were properly implemented in practice, the manuals suggest that town planning and Hindu temples were conceived as ideals of art and integral part of Hindu social and spiritual life.

Ancient India produced many Sanskrit manuals for Hindu temple design and construction, covering arrangement of spaces (above) to every aspect of its completion. Yet, the Silpins were given wide latitude to experiment and express their creativity.

The Silpa Prakasa of Odisha, authored by Ramacandra Bhattaraka Kaulacara in the 9th or 10th centuries CE, is another Sanskrit treatise on Temple Architecture. Silpa Prakasa describes the geometric principles in every aspect of the temple and symbolism such as 16 emotions of human beings carved as 16 types of female figures. These styles were perfected in Hindu temples prevalent in the eastern states of India. Other ancient texts found expand these architectural principles, suggesting that different parts of India developed, invented and added their own interpretations. For example, in the Saurastra tradition of temple building found in western states of India, the feminine form, expressions and emotions are depicted in 32 types of Nataka-stri compared to 16 types described in Silpa Prakasa. Silpa Prakasa provides a brief introduction to 12 types of Hindu temples. Other texts, such as Pancaratra Prasada Prasadhana compiled by Daniel Smith and Silpa Ratnakara compiled by Narmada Sankara provide a more extensive list of Hindu temple types.

Ancient Sanskrit manuals for temple construction discovered in Rajasthan, in northwestern region of India, include Sutradhara Mandana's Prasadamandana (literally, manual for planning and building a temple). Manasara, a text of South Indian origin, estimated to be in circulation by the 7th century CE, is a guidebook on South Indian temple design and construction. Isanasivagurudeva paddhati is another Sanskrit text from the 9th century describing the art of temple building in India in south and central India. In north India, Brihat-samhita by Varāhamihira is the widely cited ancient Sanskrit manual from 6th century describing the design and construction of Nagara style of Hindu temples.

A Hindu temple design follows a geometrical design called vastu-purusha-mandala. The name is a composite Sanskrit word with three of the most important components of the plan. Mandala means circle, Purusha is universal essence at the core of Hindu tradition, while Vastu means the dwelling structure. The Vastu-purusha-mandala is a yantra, a design laying out a Hindu temple in a symmetrical, self-repeating structure derived from central beliefs, myths, cardinality and mathematical principles.

The four cardinal directions help create the axis of a Hindu temple, around which is formed a perfect square in the space available. The circle of the mandala circumscribes the square. The square is considered divine for its perfection and as a symbolic product of knowledge and human thought, while the circle is considered earthly, human and observed in everyday life (moon, sun, horizon, water drop, rainbow). Each supports the other. The square is divided into perfect 64 (or in some cases 81) sub-squares called padas. Each pada is conceptually assigned to a symbolic element, sometimes in the form of a deity. The central square(s) of the 64- or 81-grid is dedicated to Brahman (not to be confused with brahmin, the scholarly and priestly class in India), and are called Brahma padas.

The 49-grid design is called Sthandila and is of great importance in creative expressions of Hindu temples in South India, particularly in Prakaras. The symmetric Vastu-purusa-mandala grids are sometimes combined to form a temple superstructure with two or more attached squares. The temples face sunrise, and the entrance for the devotee is typically this east side. The mandala pada facing sunrise is dedicated to Surya, the sun-god. The Surya pada is flanked by the padas of Satya, the deity of Truth, on one side and Indra, the king of the demigods, on other. The east and north faces of most temples feature a mix of gods and demigods; while the west and south feature demons and demigods related to the underworld. This vastu-purusha-mandala plan and symbolism is systematically seen in ancient Hindu temples on the Indian subcontinent as well as those in southeast Asia, with regional creativity and variations.

Beneath the mandala's central square(s) is the space for the all-pervasive, all-connecting Universal Spirit, the highest reality, the purusha. This space is sometimes known as the garbha-griya (literally, "womb house")-a small, perfect square, windowless, enclosed space without ornamentation that represents universal essence. In or near this space is typically a cult image-which, though many Indians may refer to casually as an idol, is more formally known as a murti, or the main worshippable deity, who varies with each temple. Often this murti gives the temple a local name, such as a Vishnu temple, Krishna temple, Rama temple, Narayana temple, Shiva temple, Lakshmi temple, Ganesha temple, Durga temple, Hanuman temple, Surya temple, etc. It is this garbha-griya which devotees seek for (literally, a sight of knowledge, or vision).

Above the vastu-purusha-mandala is a superstructure with a dome called in north India, and in south India, that stretches towards the sky. Sometimes, in makeshift temples, the dome may be replaced with symbolic bamboo with few leaves at the top. The vertical dimension's cupola or dome is designed as a pyramid, a cone or other mountain-like shape, once again using the principle of concentric circles and squares. Scholars suggest that this shape is inspired by the cosmic mountain of Meru or Himalayan Kailasa, the abode of the gods, according to Vedic mythology.

In larger temples, the central space typically is surrounded by an ambulatory for the devotee to walk around and ritually circumambulate the Purusa, the universal essence. Often this space is visually decorated with carvings, paintings or images meant to inspire the devotee. In some temples, these images may be stories from Hindu Epics; in others, they may be Vedic tales about right and wrong or virtues and vice; in yet others, they may be murtis of locally worshipped deities. The pillars, walls and ceilings typically also have highly ornate carvings or images of the four just and necessary pursuits of life-kama, artha, dharma and moksa. This walk around is called pradakshina.

Large temples also have pillared halls, called mandapa-one of which, on the east side, serves as the waiting room for pilgrims and devotees. The mandapa may be a separate structure in older temples, but in newer temples this space is integrated into the temple superstructure. Mega-temple sites have a main temple surrounded by smaller temples and shrines, but these are still arranged by principles of symmetry, grids and mathematical precision. An important principle found in the layout of Hindu temples is mirroring and repeating fractal-like design structure, each unique yet also repeating the central common principle, one which Susan Lewandowski refers to as "an organism of repeating cells".

The ancient texts on Hindu temple design, the Vāstu-puruṣa-mandala and Vastu Śāstras, do not limit themselves to the design of a Hindu temple. They describe the temple as a holistic part of its community, and lay out various principles and a diversity of alternate designs for home, village and city layout along with the temple, gardens, water bodies and nature.

Exceptions to the square grid principle

A predominant number of Hindu temples exhibit the perfect-square grid principle. However, there are some exceptions. For example, the Telika Mandir in Gwalior, built in the 8th century CE, is not a square but a rectangle in 2:3 proportion. Further, the temple explores a number of structures and shrines in 1:1, 1:2, 1:3, 2:5, 3:5 and 4:5 ratios. These ratios are exact, suggesting that the architect intended to use these harmonic ratios, and the rectangle pattern was not a mistake, nor an arbitrary approximation. Other examples of non-square harmonic ratios are found at the Naresar temple site of Madhya Pradesh and at the Nakti-Mata temple near Jaipur, Rajasthan. Michael Meister suggests that these exceptions mean that the ancient Sanskrit manuals for temple building were guidelines, and Hinduism permitted its artisans flexibility in expression and aesthetic independence.

A Hindu temple is a symbolic reconstruction of the universe and the universal principles that enable everything in it to function. The temples reflect Hindu philosophy and its diverse views on the cosmos and on truth.

Hinduism has no traditional ecclesiastical order, no centralized religious authorities, no governing body, no prophet nor any binding holy book save the Vedas; Hindus can choose to be polytheistic, pantheistic, monistic, or atheistic. Within this diffuse and open structure, spirituality in Hindu philosophy is an individual experience, and referred to as kṣaitrajña ( Sanskrit: क्षैत्रज्ञ)). It defines spiritual practice as one's journey towards , awareness of self, the discovery of higher truths, true nature of reality, and a consciousness that is liberated and content. A Hindu temple reflects these core beliefs. The central core of almost all Hindu temples is not a large communal space; the temple is designed for the individual, a couple or a family-a small, private space to allow visitors to experience darsana.

Darsana is itself a symbolic word. In ancient Hindu scripts, darsana is the name of six methods or alternate viewpoints of understanding truth. These are Nyaya, Vaisesika, Sankhya, Yoga, Mimamsa and Vedanta -which flowered into individual schools of Hinduism, each of which is considered a valid, alternate path to understanding truth and achieving self-realization in the Hindu way of life.

From names to forms, from images to stories carved into the walls of a temple, symbolism is everywhere in a Hindu temple. Life principles such as the pursuit of joy, connection and emotional pleasure (kama) are fused into mystical, erotic and architectural forms in Hindu temples. These motifs and principles of human life are part of the sacred texts of the Hindus, such as its Upanishads; the temples express these same principles in a different form, through art and spaces. For example, Brihadaranyaka Upanisad (4.3.21) recites:

In the embrace of the beloved, one forgets the whole world, everything both within and without;
in the same way, one who embraces the Self knows neither within nor without.

The architecture of Hindu temples is also symbolic. The whole structure fuses the daily life and its surroundings with the divine concepts, through a structure that is open yet raised on a terrace, transitioning from the secular towards the sacred, inviting the visitor inwards and upwards towards the Brahma pada, the temple's central core, a symbolic space marked by its spire ( shikhara, vimana). The ancient temples had grand, intricately carved entrances but no doors, and they lacked a boundary wall. In most cultures, suggests Edmund Leach, a boundary and gateway separates the secular and the sacred, and this gateway door is grand. In Hindu tradition, this is discarded in favor of an open and diffusive architecture, where the secular world was not separated from the sacred, but transitioned and flowed into the sacred. The Hindu temple has structural walls, which were patterned usually within the 64-grid, or other geometric layouts. Yet the layout was open on all sides, except for the core space with a single opening for darsana. The temple space is laid out in a series of courts ( mandapas). The outermost regions may incorporate the negative and suffering side of life with the symbolism of evil, asuras and rakshashas; but in small temples this layer is dispensed with. When present, this outer region diffuse into the next inner layer that bridges as human space, followed by another inner Devika padas space and symbolic arts incorporating the positive and joyful side of life about the good and the gods. This divine space then concentrically diffuses inwards and lifts the guest to the core of the temple, where resides the main murti, as well as the space for the Purusa, and ideas held to be most sacred principles in Hindu tradition. The symbolism in the arts and temples of Hinduism, suggests Edmund Leach, is similar to those in Christianity and other major religions of the world.

Indian texts call the craftsmen and builders of temples "Silpin" ( Sanskrit: शिल्पिन्), derived from "Silpa". One of the earliest mentions of the Sanskrit word "Silpa" is in Atharvaveda, from about 1000 BCE; according to scholars, the word was used to denote any work of art. Some scholars suggest that the word "Silpa" has no direct or one-word translation in English, nor does the word "Silpin". "Silpa", explains Stella Kramrisch, is a multicolored word and incorporates art, skill, craft, ingenuity, imagination, form, expression and inventiveness of any art or craft. Similarly, "Shilpin", notes Kramrisch, is a complex Sanskrit word, describing any person who embodies art, science, culture, skill, and rhythm and employs creative principles to produce any divine form of expression. Silpins who built Hindu temples, as well as the artworks and sculptures within them, were considered by the ancient Sanskrit texts to deploy arts whose number are unlimited, Kala (techniques) that were 64 in number, and Vidya (science) that were of 32 types.

The Hindu manuals of temple construction describe the education, characteristics of good artists and architects. The general education of a Hindu Shilpin in ancient India included Lekha or Lipi (alphabet, reading and writing), Rupa (drawing and geometry), Ganana (arithmetic). These were imparted from age 5 to 12. The advanced students would continue in higher stages of Shilpa Sastra studies till the age of 25. Apart from specialist technical competence, the manuals suggest that best Silpins for building a Hindu temple are those who know the essence of Vedas and Agamas, consider themselves as students, keep well verse with principles of traditional sciences and mathematics, painting and geography. Further they are kind, free from jealousy, righteous, have their sense under control, of happy disposition, and ardent in everything they do.

According to Silparatna, a Hindu temple project would start with a Yajamana (patron), and include a Sthapaka (guru, spiritual guide and architect-priest), a Sthapati (architect) who would design the building, a Sutragrahin (surveyor), and many Vardhakins (workers, masons, painters, plasterers, overseers) and Taksakas (sculptors). While the temple is under construction, all those working on the temple were revered and considered sacerdotal by the patron as well as others witnessing the construction. Further, it was a tradition that all tools and materials used in temple building and all creative work had the sanction of a sacrament. For example, if a carpenter or sculptor needed to fell a tree or cut a rock from a hill, he would propitiate the tree or rock with prayers, seeking forgiveness for cutting it from its surroundings, and explaining his intent and purpose. The axe used to cut the tree would be anointed with butter to minimize the hurt to the tree. Even in modern times, in some parts of India such as Odisha, Visvakarma Puja is a ritual festival every year where the craftsmen and artists worship their arts, tools and materials.

Hindu temples served as nuclei of important social, economic, artistic and intellectual functions in ancient and medieval India. Burton Stein states that South Indian temples managed regional development function, such as irrigation projects, land reclamation, post-disaster relief and recovery. These activities were paid for by the donations (melvarum) they collected from devotees. According to James Heitzman, these donations came from a wide spectrum of the Indian society, ranging from kings, queens, officials in the kingdom to merchants, priests and shepherds. Temples also managed lands endowed to it by its devotees upon their death. They would provide employment to the poorest. Some temples had large treasury, with gold and silver coins, and these temples served as banks.

The Golden Temple at Vellore is gilded with 1500 kg of pure gold.

Hindu temples over time became wealthy from grants and donations from royal patrons as well as private individuals. Major temples became employers and patrons of economic activity. They sponsored land reclamation and infrastructure improvements, states Michell, including building facilities such as water tanks, irrigation canals and new roads. A very detailed early record from 1101 lists over 600 employees (excluding the priests) of the Brihadisvara Temple, Thanjavur, still one of the largest temples in Tamil Nadu. Most worked part-time and received the use of temple farmland as reward. For those thus employed by the temple, according to Michell, "some gratuitous services were usually considered obligatory, such as dragging the temple chariots on festival occasions and helping when a large building project was undertaken". Temples also acted as refuge during times of political unrest and danger.

In contemporary times, the process of building a Hindu temple by emigrants and diasporas from South Asia has also served as a process of building a community, a social venue to network, reduce prejudice and seek civil rights together.

John Guy and Jorrit Britschgi state Hindu temples served as centers where ancient manuscripts were routinely used for learning and where the texts were copied when they wore out. In South India, temples and associated mathas served custodial functions, and a large number of manuscripts on Hindu philosophy, poetry, grammar and other subjects were written, multiplied and preserved inside the temples. Archaeological and epigraphical evidence indicates existence of libraries called Sarasvati-bhandara, dated possibly to early 12th-century and employing librarians, attached to Hindu temples.

Palm-leaf manuscripts called lontar in dedicated stone libraries have been discovered by archaeologists at Hindu temples in Bali Indonesia and in 10th century Cambodian temples such as Angkor Wat and Banteay Srei.

Inscriptions from the 4th century CE suggest the existence of schools around Hindu temples, called Ghatikas or Mathas, where the Vedas were studied. In south India, 9th century Vedic schools attached to Hindu temples were called Calai or Salai, and these provided free boarding and lodging to students and scholars. The temples linked to Bhakti movement in the early 2nd millennium, were dominated by non-Brahmins. These assumed many educational functions, including the exposition, recitation and public discourses of Sanskrit and Vedic texts. Some temple schools offered wide range of studies, ranging from Hindu scriptures to Buddhist texts, grammar, philosophy, martial arts, music and painting. By the 8th century, Hindu temples also served as the social venue for tests, debates, team competition and Vedic recitals called Anyonyam.

Hospitals, community kitchen, monasteries

According to Kenneth G. Zysk-a professor specializing in Indology and ancient medicine, Hindu mathas and temples had by the 10th-century attached medical care along with their religious and educational roles. This is evidenced by various inscriptions found in Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and elsewhere. An inscription dated to about 930 CE states the provision of a physician to two matha to care for the sick and destitute. Another inscription dated to 1069 at a Vishnu temple in Tamil Nadu describes a hospital attached to the temple, listing the nurses, physicians, medicines and beds for patients. Similarly, a stone inscription in Andhra Pradesh dated to about 1262 mentions the provision of a prasutishala (maternity house), vaidya (physician), an arogyashala (health house) and a viprasattra (hospice, kitchen) with the religious center where people from all social backgrounds could be fed and cared for. According to Zysk, both Buddhist monasteries and Hindu religious centers provided facilities to care for the sick and needy in the 1st millennium, but with the destruction of Buddhist centers after the 12th century, the Hindu religious institutions assumed these social responsibilities. According to George Michell, Hindu temples in South India were active charity centers and they provided free meal for wayfarers, pilgrims and devotees, as well as boarding facilities for students and hospitals for the sick.

The 15th and 16th century Hindu temples at Hampi featured storage spaces (temple granary, kottara), water tanks and kitchens. Many major pilgrimage sites have featured dharmashalas since early times. These were attached to Hindu temples, particularly in South India, providing a bed and meal to pilgrims. They relied on any voluntary donation the visitor may leave and to land grants from local rulers. Some temples have operated their kitchens on a daily basis to serve the visitor and the needy, while others during major community gatherings or festivals. Examples include the major kitchens run by Hindu temples in Udupi (Karnataka), Puri (Odisha) and Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh). The tradition of sharing food in smaller temple is typically called prasada.

Hindu temples are found in diverse locations each incorporating different methods of construction and styles:

Mountain temples such as Masrur

Cave temples such as Chandrabhaga, Chalukya and Ellora

Stepwell temple compounds such as the Mata Bhavani, Ankol Mata and Huccimallugudi

Forest temples such as Kasaun and Kusama

River bank and sea shore temples such as Somnath

In arid western parts of India, such as Rajasthan and Gujarat, Hindu communities built large walk-in wells that served as the only source of water in dry months but also served as social meeting places and carried religious significance. These monuments went down into the earth towards subterranean water, up to seven storeys, and were part of a temple complex. These vav (literally, stepwells) had intricate art reliefs on the walls, with numerous murtis and images of Hindu deities, water spirits and erotic symbolism. The step wells were named after Hindu deities; for example, Mata Bhavani's Stepwell, Ankol Mata Vav, Sikotari Vav and others. The temple ranged from being small single pada (cell) structure to large nearby complexes. These stepwells and their temple compounds have been variously dated from late 1st millennium BCE through 11th century CE. Of these, Rani ki vav, with hundreds of art reliefs including many of Vishnu deity avatars, has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The Indian rock-cut architecture evolved in Maharashtran temple style in the 1st millennium CE. The temples are carved from a single piece of rock as a complete temple or carved in a cave to look like the interior of a temple. Ellora Temple is an example of the former, while The Elephanta Caves are representative of the latter style.[citation needed ] The Elephanta Caves consist of two groups of caves-the first is a large group of five Hindu caves and the second is a smaller group of two Buddhist caves. The Hindu caves contain rock-cut stone sculptures, representing the Shaiva Hindu sect, dedicated to the god Shiva.

A typical, ancient Hindu temple has a profusion of arts-from paintings to sculpture, from symbolic icons to engravings, from thoughtful layout of space to fusion of mathematical principles with Hindu sense of time and cardinality.

Ancient Sanskrit texts classify murtis and images in a number of ways. For example, one method of classification is the dimensionality of completion:

Chitra: images that are three-dimensional and completely formed

Chitrardha: images that are engraved in half relief

Chitrabhasa: images that are two-dimensional, such as paintings on walls and cloth

Another way of classification is by the expressive state of the image:

Raudra or Dugra: are images that were meant to terrify, induce fear. These typically have wide, circular eyes, carry weapons, have skulls and bones as adornment. These murtis were worshiped by soldiers before going to war, or by people in times of distress or terrors. Raudra deity temples were not set up inside villages or towns, but invariably outside and in remote areas of a kingdom.

Shanta and saumya: are images that were pacific, peaceful and expressive of love, compassion, kindness and other virtues in Hindu pantheon. These images would carry symbolic icons of peace, knowledge, music, wealth, flowers, sensuality among other things. In ancient India, these temples were predominant inside villages and towns.

A Hindu temple may or may not include a murti or images, but larger temples usually do. Personal Hindu temples at home or a hermitage may have a pada for yoga or meditation, but be devoid of anthropomorphic representations of god. Nature or others arts may surround him or her. To a Hindu yogin, states Gopinath Rao, one who has realised the Self and the Universal Principle within himself, there is no need for any temple or divine image for worship. However, for those who have yet to reach this height of realization, various symbolic manifestations through images, murtis and icons as well as mental modes of worship are offered as one of the spiritual paths in the Hindu way of life. Some ancient Hindu scriptures like the Jabaladarshana Upanishad appear to endorse this idea

शिवमात्मनि पश्यन्ति प्रतिमासु न योगिनः ।
अज्ञानं भावनार्थाय प्रतिमाः परिकल्पिताः ॥५९॥
- जाबालदर्शनोपनिषत्

A yogin perceives god (Siva) within himself; images are for those who have not reached this knowledge.

- Jabaladarsana Upanishad, verse 59

However, devotees aspiring to a personal relationship with the Supreme Lord, whom they worship variously as Krishna or Shiva, for example, tend to reverse such hierarchical views of self-realization, holding that the personal form of the deity, as the source of the Brahma-jyoti, or the light into which impersonalists, according to their ideals, propose to merge themselves and their individual identities, will benevolently accept worship through an arca vigraha, an authorized form constructed not according to imagination but in pursuit of scriptural directives.

A number of ancient Indian texts suggest the prevalence of murtis, temples and shrines in Indian subcontinent for thousands of years. For example, the temples of the Koshala kingdom are mentioned in the Valmiki Ramayana (various recent scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text range from the 7th to 4th centuries BCE, with later stages extending up to the 3rd century CE) The 5th century BCE text, Astadhyayi, mentions male deity arcas or murtis of Agni, Indra, Varuna, Rudra, Mrda, Pusa, Surya, and Soma being worshipped, as well as the worship of arcas of female goddesses such as Indrani, Varunani, Usa, Bhavani, Prthivi and Vrsakapayi. The 2nd century BCE " Mahabhasya" of Patanjali extensively describes temples of Dhanapati (deity of wealth and finance, Kubera), as well as temples of Rama and Kesava, wherein the worship included dance, music and extensive rituals. The Mahabhasya also describes the rituals for Krsna, Visnu and Siva. An image recovered from Mathura in north India has been dated to the 2nd century BCE. Kautilya's Arthashastra from 4th century BCE describes a city of temples, each enshrining various Vedic and Puranic deities. All three of these sources have common names, describe common rituals, symbolism and significance possibly suggesting that the idea of murtis, temples and shrines passed from one generation to next, in ancient India, at least from the 4th century BCE. The oldest temples, suggest scholars, were built of brick and wood. Stone became the preferred material of construction later.

Early Jain and Buddhist literature, along with Kautilya's Arthashastra, describe structures, embellishments and designs of these temples-all with motifs and deities currently prevalent in Hinduism. Bas-reliefs and murtis have been found from 2nd to 3rd century, but none of the temple structures have survived. Scholars theorize that those ancient temples of India, later referred to as Hindu temples, were modeled after domestic structure-a house or a palace. Beyond shrines, nature was revered, in forms such as trees, rivers, and stupas, before the time of Buddha and Vardhamana Mahavira. As Jainism and Buddhism branched off from the religious tradition later to be called Hinduism, the ideas, designs and plans of ancient Vedic and Upanishad era shrines were adopted and evolved, likely from the competitive development of temples and arts in Jainism and Buddhism. Ancient reliefs found so far, states Michael Meister, suggest five basic shrine designs and combinations thereof in 1st millennium BCE:

1. A raised platform with or without a symbol

2. A raised platform under an umbrella

3. A raised platform under a tree

4. A raised platform enclosed with a railing

5. A raised platform inside a pillared pavilion

Many of these ancient shrines were roofless, some had toranas and roof.

From the 1st century BCE through 3rd century CE, the evidence and details about ancient temples increases. The ancient literature refers to these temples as Pasada (or Prasada), stana, mahasthana, devalaya, devagrha, devakula, devakulika, ayatana and harmya. The entrance of the temple is referred to as dvarakosthaka in these ancient texts notes Meister, the temple hall is described as sabha or ayagasabha, pillars were called kumbhaka, while vedika referred to the structures at the boundary of a temple.

1880 sketch of the 9-square floorplan of the same temple (not to scale or complete). For better drawings:

Plan of the 6th-century main-cave temple at Elephanta

The Elephanta main cave is thought to follow this mandala design.

A 7th century Chalukyan-style temple ceiling, also in Aihole

Rani ki Vav is an 11th-century stepwell, built by the Chaulukya dynasty, located in Patan. The stepwell remains well-preserved, but is partly silted over.

With the start of Gupta dynasty in the 4th century, Hindu temples flourished in innovation, design, scope, form, use of stone and new materials as well as symbolic synthesis of culture and dharmic principles with artistic expression. It is this period that is credited with the ideas of garbhagrha for Purusa, mandapa for sheltering the devotees and rituals in progress, as well as symbolic motifs relating to dharma, karma, kama, artha and moksha. Temple superstructures were built from stone, brick and wide range of materials. Entrance ways, walls and pillars were intricately carved, while parts of temple were decorated with gold, silver and jewels. Visnu, Siva and other deities were placed in Hindu temples, while Buddhists and Jains built their own temples, often side by side with Hindus.

The 4th through 6th century marked the flowering of Vidharbha style, whose accomplishments survive in central India as Ajanta caves, Pavnar, Mandhal and Mahesvar. In the Malaprabha river basin, South India, this period is credited with some of the earliest stone temples of the region: the Badami Chalukya temples are dated to the 5th century by some scholars, and the 6th by some others.

Over 6th and 7th centuries, temple designs were further refined during Maurya dynasty, evidence of which survives today at Ellora and in the Elephanta cave temples.

It is the 5th through 7th century CE when outer design and appearances of Hindu temples in north India and south India began to widely diverge. Nevertheless, the forms, theme, symbolism and central ideas in the grid design remained same, before and after, pan-India as innovations were adopted to give distinctly different visual expressions.

The Western Chalukya architecture of the 11th- and 12th-century Tungabhadra region of modern central Karnataka includes many temples. Step-wells are consist of a shaft dug to the water table, with steps descending to the water; while they were built for secular purposes, some are also decorated as temples, or serve as a temple tank.

During the 5th to 11th century, Hindu temples flourished outside Indian subcontinent, such as in Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia. In Cambodia, Khmer architecture favoured the Temple mountain style famously used in Angkor Wat, with a prang spire over the sanctum cell. Indonesian candi developed regional forms. In what is modern south and central Vietnam, Champa architecture built brick temples.

Destruction, conversion, and rebuilding Many Hindu temples have been destroyed, some, after rebuilding, several times. Deliberate temple destruction usually had religious motives. Richard Eaton has listed 80 campaigns of Hindu temple site destruction stretching over centuries, particularly from the 12th through the 18th century. Others temples have served as non-Hindu places of worship, either after conversion or simultaneously with Hindu use.

In the 12th-16th century, during Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent and South Asia, Hindu temples, along with the temples of Buddhists and Jains, intermittently became targets of armies from Persian, Central Asian, and Indian sultanates. Imagined by these foreign zealots to be mere idols, sacred Forms of various deities were broken, spires and pillars were torn down, and temples were looted of their treasury. Some temples were converted into mosques, or parts used to build mosques. There exist both Indian and Muslim traditions of religious toleration. Muslim rulers led campaigns of temple destruction and forbade repairs to damaged temples, following the Muslim traditions. The Delhi Sultanate destroyed a large number of temples; Sikandar the Iconoclast, Sultan of Kashmir, was also known for his intolerance.

The 16th- and 19th-century Goa Inquisition destroyed hundreds of Hindu temples. All Hindu temples in Portuguese colonies in India were destroyed, according to a 1569 letter in the Portuguese royal archives. Temples were not converted into churches. [citation needed ] Religious conflict and desecrations of places of worship continued during the British colonial era. Historian Sita Ram Goel's book "What happened to Hindu Temples" lists over 2000 sites where temples have been destroyed and mosques have been built over them. Some historians suggest that around 30,000 temples were destroyed by Islamic rulers between 1200 and 1800 CE. Destruction of Hindu temple sites was comparatively less in the southern parts of India, such as in Tamil Nadu. Cave-style Hindu temples that were carved inside a rock, hidden and rediscovered centuries later, such as the Kailasa Temple, have also preferentially survived. Many are now UNESCO world heritage sites.[better source needed ]

In India, the Place of Worship (Special Provisions) Act was enacted in 1991 which prohibited the conversion of any religious site from the religion to which it was dedicated on 15 August 1947.

The Kashi Vishwanath Temple was destroyed by the army of Qutb ud-Din Aibak in 1194 CE. Since then, it has been demolished twice (in the 1400s, and 1669 CE) and rebuilt four times (in the 1200s, twice in the 1500s under Akbar, and in the 1800s). Shown is the current 1800s temple, with the white domes and minaret of the co-located 1600s Gyanvapi Mosque in the background. The tonne of gold for the temple roof was donated by Ranjit Singh in 1835.

Kakatiya Kala Thoranam (the Warangal Gate) built in the 12th century by the Kakatiya dynasty; the Warangal Fort temple complex was destroyed in the 1300s by the Delhi Sultanate.

Artistic rendition of the Kirtistambh, a surviving portion of the 10-11th century Rudra Mahalaya Temple. The temple was partly destroyed by the Sultan of Delhi, Alauddin Khalji, in 1296 CE, with part converted into a mosque and further parts destroyed by Ahmed Shah I in the 15th century.

Exterior wall reliefs at Hoysaleswara Temple. The temple was twice sacked and plundered by the Delhi Sultanate in the early 14th century, and abandoned in the mid 14th century.

In Hinduism, temples are considered sacred spaces where the divine is believed to manifest, and devotees visit these places to experience the presence and blessings of the deity. The customs and etiquette for visiting temples varies across India. Devotees in major temples may bring in symbolic offerings for the puja. This includes fruits, flowers, sweets and other symbols of the bounty of the natural world. Temples in India are usually surrounded with small shops selling these offerings.

When inside the temple, devotees keep both hands folded ( namaste mudra). The inner sanctuary, where the murtis reside, is known as the garbhagriha. It symbolizes the birthplace of the universe, the meeting place of the gods and humankind, and the threshold between the transcendental and the phenomenal worlds. It is in this inner shrine that devotees seek (seeing and being seen by the auspicious sight of the divine) and offer prayers. Devotees may or may not be able to personally present their offerings at the feet of the deity. In most large Indian temples, only the pujaris (priest) are allowed to enter the main sanctum.

Temple management staff typically announce the hours of operation, including timings for special pujas. These timings and nature of special puja vary from temple to temple. Additionally, there may be specially allotted times for devotees to perform pradakshina (circumambulations) around the temple.

Visitors and worshipers to large Hindu temples may be required to deposit their shoes and other footwear before entering. Where this is expected, the temples provide an area and help staff to store footwear. Dress codes vary. It is customary in temples in Kerala, for men to remove shirts and to cover pants and shorts with a traditional cloth known as a . In Java and Bali (Indonesia), before one enters the most sacred parts of a Hindu temple, shirts are required as well as a sarong around one's waist. At many other locations, this formality is unnecessary.

North Indian temples are referred to as Nagara style of temple architecture. They have sanctum sanctorum where the deity is present, open on one side from where the devotee obtains . There may or may not be many more surrounding corridors, halls, etc. However, there will be space for devotees to go around the temple in clockwise fashion circumambulation. In North Indian temples, the tallest towers are built over the sanctum sanctorum in which the deity is installed.

The north India Nagara style of temple designs often deploy fractal-theme, where smaller parts of the temple are themselves images or geometric re-arrangement of the large temple, a concept that later inspired French and Russian architecture such as the matryoshka principle. One difference is the scope and cardinality, where Hindu temple structures deploy this principle in every dimension with garbhgriya as the primary locus, and each pada as well as zones serving as additional centers of loci. This makes a Nagara Hindu temple architecture symbolically a perennial expression of movement and time, of centrifugal growth fused with the idea of unity in everything.

Dakshineswar Kali Temple, Kolkata

In West Bengal, the Bengali terra cotta temple architecture is found. Due to lack of suitable stone in the alluvial soil locally available, the temple makers had to resort to other materials instead of stone. This gave rise to using terracotta as a medium for temple construction. Terracotta exteriors with rich carvings are a unique feature of Bengali temples. The town of Bishnupur in West Bengal is renowned for this type of architecture. There is also a popular style of building known as Naba-ratna (nine-towered) or Pancha-ratna (five-towered). An example of Navaratna style is the Dakshineswar Kali Temple.

Odisha temple architecture is known as Kalinga architecture, classifies the spire into three parts, the Bāḍa (lower limb), the Ganḍi (body) and the Cuḷa/Mastaka (head). Each part is decorated in a different manner. Kalinga architecture is a style which flourished in Kalinga, the name for kingdom that included ancient Odisha. It includes three styles: Rekha Deula, Pidha Deula and Khakhara Deula. The former two are associated with Vishnu, Surya and Shiva temples while the third is mainly associated with Chamunda and Durga temples. The Rekha Deula and Khakhara Deula houses the sanctum sanctorum while the Pidha Deula style includes space for outer dancing and offering halls.

Bird's Eye view of one of the four Char Dhams, The Jagannath Temple at Puri, Odisha built using the Kalinga Architecture

Saptakoteshwar Temple, Goa

The temple architecture of Goa is quite unique. As Portuguese colonial hegemony increased, Goan Hindu temples became the rallying point to local resistance. Many these temples are not more than 500 years old, and are a unique blend of original Goan temple architecture, Dravidian, Nagar and Hemadpanthi temple styles with some British and Portuguese architectural influences. Goan temples were built using sedimentary rocks, wood, limestone and clay tiles, and copper sheets were used for the roofs. These temples were decorated with mural art called as or ocher art. The interiors have murals and wood carvings depicting scenes from the Hindu mythology.

South Indian temples have a large gopuram, a monumental tower, usually ornate, at the entrance of the temple. This forms a prominent feature of Koils, Hindu temples of the Dravidian style. They are topped by the kalasam, a bulbous stone finial. They function as gateways through the walls that surround the temple complex. The gopuram's origins can be traced back to early structures of the Tamil kings Pallavas; and by the twelfth century, under the Pandya rulers, these gateways became a dominant feature of a temple's outer appearance, eventually overshadowing the inner sanctuary which became obscured from view by the gopuram's colossal size. It also dominated the inner sanctum in amount of ornamentation. Often a shrine has more than one gopuram. They also appear in architecture outside India, especially Khmer architecture, as at Angkor Wat. A koil may have multiple gopurams, typically constructed into multiple walls in tiers around the main shrine. The temple's walls are typically square with the outer most wall having gopuras. The sanctum sanctorum and its towering roof (the central deity's shrine) are also called the . The inner sanctum has restricted access with only priests allowed beyond a certain point.

Temples in Kerala

Temples in Kerala have a different architectural style (keeping the same essence of Vastu), especially due to climatic differences Kerala have with other parts of India with larger rainfall. The temple roof is mostly tiled and is sloped and the walls are often square, the innermost shrine being entirely enclosed in another four walls to which only the pujari (priest) enters. The walls are decorated with either mural paintings or rock sculptures which many times are emphasised on Dwarapalakas.

Temples in Tamil Nadu

The Srirangam Ranganathaswamy temple is the worlds largest functioning Hindu temple. The temple is present in Tamil Nadu, the temple was first built by the Chola ruler, Dharmavarma. The Kaveri river flood destroyed the temple and vimanam submerged in the island, and later, the early Cholas King Killivalavan rebuilt the temple complex as is present today. Beyond the ancient textual history, archaeological evidence such as inscriptions refer to this temple, and these stone inscriptions are from late 100 BCE to 100 CE. Hence, making it one of the Oldest surviving active temple complexes in South India. Later, the temple constructions reached its peak during rule of is construction reached its peak during rule of Pallavas. They built various temples around Kancheepuram, and Narasimhavarman II built the Thirukadalmallai and Shore Temple in Mamallapuram, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Pandyas rule created temples such as the Koodal Azhagar temple and Meenakshi Amman Temple at Madurai and Srivilliputhur Andal Temple at Srivilliputhur. The Cholas were prolific temple builders right from the times of the first medieval king Vijayalaya Chola. The Chola temples include Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple at Srirangam, the Brihadeeshwarar temple at Tanjore, Brihadeeshwarar temple at Gangaikonda Cholapuram and the Airavatesvarar Temple of Darasuram which are among the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The Nayaks of Madurai reconstructed some of the well-known temples in Tamil Nadu such as the Meenakshi Temple. One of the southernmost famous temples in South India, the Ramanathaswamy Temple was built in the 17th century on the island of Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu.

An aerial view of the Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam in Srirangam, often known as Bhuloka Vaikuntham and First among the 108 Vaishnavate Divya Desams

The Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu, Nepal is an important temple in Hinduism. It is built in a pagoda style and is surrounded by hundreds of temples and buildings built by kings. The temples top is made from pure gold.

Art relief at the Hindu temple Banteay Srei in Cambodia

Angkor Wat was built as a Hindu temple by King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century in Yasodharapura (Khmer, present-day Angkor), the capital of the Khmer Empire, as his state temple and eventual mausoleum. Breaking from the Shaiva tradition of previous kings, Angkor Wat was instead dedicated to Vishnu. The Spire in Khmer Hindu temple is called Giri (mountain) and symbolizes the residence of gods just like Meru does in Bali Hindu mythology and Ku (Guha) does in Burmese Hindu mythology.

Angkor Wat is just one of numerous Hindu temples in Cambodia, most of them in ruins. Hundreds of Hindu temples are scattered from Siem Reap to Sambor Prei Kuk in central Cambodian region.

Ancient Hindu temples in Indonesia are called (read: chandi). Prior to the rise of Islam, between the 5th to 15th century Dharmic faiths (Hinduism and Buddhism) were the majority in Indonesian archipelago, especially in Java and Sumatra. As the result numerous Hindu temples, locally known as , constructed and dominated the landscape of Java. According to local beliefs, Java valley had thousands of Hindu temples which co-existed with Buddhist temples, most of which were buried in massive eruption of Mount Merapi in 1006 CE.

Between 1,100 and 1,500 additional Hindu temples were built, but abandoned by Hindus and Buddhists as Islam spread in Java circa 15th to 16th century. In last 200 years, some of these have been rediscovered mostly by farmers while preparing their lands for crops. Most of these ancient temples were rediscovered and reconstructed between 19th to 20th century, and treated as the important archaeological findings and also as tourist attraction, but not as the house of worship. Hindu temples of ancient Java bear resemblances with temples of South Indian style. The largest of these is the 9th century Javanese Hindu temple, Prambanan in Yogyakarta, now a UNESCO world heritage site. It was designed as three concentric squares and has 224 temples. The inner square contains 16 temples dedicated to major Hindu deities, of which Shiva temple is the largest. The temple has extensive wall reliefs and carvings illustrating the stories from the Hindu epic Ramayana.

In Bali, the Hindu temple is known as " Pura", which is designed as an open-air worship place in a walled compound. The compound walls have a series of intricately decorated gates without doors for the devotee to enter. The design, plan and layout of the holy pura follows a square layout.

The majority of Hindu temples in Java were dedicated to Shiva, who Javanese Hindus considered as the God who commands the energy to destroy, recombine and recreate the cycle of life. Small temples were often dedicated to Shiva and his family (wife Durga, son Ganesha). Larger temple complexes include temples for Vishnu and Brahma, but the most majestic, sophisticated and central temple was dedicated to Shiva. The 732 CE Canggal inscription found in Southern Central Java, written in Indonesian Sanskrit script, eulogizes Shiva, calling him God par-excellence.

Partially ruined Mỹ Sơn Hindu temple complex, Vietnam

There are a number of Hindu temple clusters built by the Champa Kingdoms along the coast of Vietnam, with some on UNESCO world heritage site list. Examples include Mỹ Sơn-a cluster of 70 temples with earliest dated to be from the 4th century CE and dedicated to Siva, while others are dedicated to Hindu deities Krishna, Vishnu and others. These temples, internally and with respect to each other, are also built on the Hindu perfect square grid concept. Other sites in Vietnam with Hindu temples include Phan Rang with the Cham temple Po Klong Garai.

Sri Mariamman Temple, Bangkok

Thailand has many notable Hindu temples including: the Sri Mariammam temple in Bangkok, the Devasathan, the Erawan Shrine, Prasat Muang Tam, Sdok Kok Thom and Phanom Rung. Most of the newer Hindu temples are of South Indian origin and were built by Tamil migrant communities. However, Thailand has many historic indigenous Hindu temples such as Phanom Rung. Although most indigenous Hindu temples are ruins, a few such as Devasathan in Bangkok are actively used.

Many members of the diaspora from the Indian subcontinent have established Hindu temples outside India as a means of preserving and celebrating cultural and spiritual heritage abroad. Describing the hundreds of temples that can be found throughout the United States, scholar Gail M. Harley observes, "The temples serve as central locations where Hindus can come together to worship during holy festivals and socialize with other Hindus. Temples in America reflect the colorful kaleidoscopic aspects contained in Hinduism while unifying people who are disbursed throughout the American landscape." Numerous temples in North America and Europe have gained particular prominence and acclaim, many of which were built by the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha. The Ganesh temple of Hindu Temple Society of North America, in Flushing, Queens, New York City, is the oldest Hindu temple in the Western Hemisphere, and its canteen feeds 4,000 people a week, with as many as 10,000 during the Diwali (Deepavali) festival.

New York/New Jersey

Outside New York/New Jersey

The Archaeological Survey of India has control of most ancient temples of archaeological importance in India. In India, day-to-day activities of a temple is managed by a temple board committee that administers its finances, management, and events. Since independence, the autonomy of individual Hindu religious denominations to manage their own affairs with respect to temples of their own denomination has been severely eroded and the state governments have taken control of major Hindu temples in some countries; however, in others, such as the United States, private temple management autonomy has been preserved.

In Sanskrit, the liturgical language of Hinduism, the word mandira means "house" ( Sanskrit: मन्दिर). Ancient Sanskrit texts use many words for temple, such as matha, vayuna, kirti, kesapaksha, devavasatha, vihara, suravasa, surakula, devatayatana, amaragara, devakula, devagrha, devabhavana, devakulika, and niketana. Regionally, they are also known as prasada, vimana, kshetra, gudi, ambalam, punyakshetram, deval, , devasthanam, , , , and .

The following are the other names by which a Hindu temple is referred to in India:

Devasthana (ದೇವಸ್ಥಾನ) in Kannada

Devro/Mindar in Rajasthani

Devala( 𑂠𑂵𑂫𑂪 ), Devalaya( 𑂠𑂵𑂫𑂰𑂪𑂨 ), Math(𑂧𑂘), Devaghar( 𑂠𑂵𑂫𑂐𑂩 ) or Mandira(𑂧𑂢𑂹𑂠𑂱𑂩) in Bhojpuri. Thakurbari(𑂘𑂍𑂳𑂩𑂥𑂰𑂚𑂲) and sivala(𑂮𑂱𑂫𑂰𑂪𑂰) are specially use of Krishna temple and Shiva temple respectively.

Gudi (గుడి), Devalayam (దేవాలయం), Devasthanam (దేవస్థానము), Kovela (కోవెల), Kshetralayam (క్షేత్రాలయం), Punyakshetram (పుణ్యక్షేత్రం), or Punyakshetralayam (పుణ్యక్షేత్రాలయం), Mandiramu (మందిరము) in Telugu

or kō-vill (கோவில்) and occasionally Aalayam (ஆலயம்) in Tamil; the Tamil word Kovil means "residence of God"

Kshetram (ക്ഷേത്രം), Ambalam (അമ്പലം), Kovil (കോവിൽ), Devasthanam (ദേവസ്ഥാനം) or Devalayam (ദേവാലയം) in Malayalam

Mondir (মন্দির) in Bengali

In Southeast Asia temples known as:

Some lands, including Varanasi, Puri, Kanchipuram, Dwarka, Amarnath, Kedarnath, Somnath, Mathura and Rameswara, are considered holy in Hinduism. They are called kṣétra ( Sanskrit: क्षेत्र). A kṣétra has many temples, including one or more major ones. These temples and its location attracts pilgrimage called tirtha (or tirthayatra).

Deva, Kṛṣṇa (1995). Temples of India. New Delhi: Aryan Books International.

Goel, S. R., and Arun Shourie (1992). Hindu temples: what happened to them. New Delhi: Voice of India.

Meister, Michael W. (1985). "Measurement and Proportion in Hindu Temple Architecture". Interdisciplinary Science Reviews. 10 (3): 248-258. Bibcode:1985ISRv...10..248M. doi:10.1179/isr.1985.10.3.248.

Nagar, Shanti Lal (1990). The temples of Himachal Pradesh. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan.

Sastri, K.A.Nilakanta (1970). Advanced History of India. New Delhi: Allied Publishers Pvt. Ltd. pp. 181-182.

Sircar, D.C. (1979). Some Epigraphical Records of the Medieval Period from Eastern India. Delhi: Shakti Malik. ISBN 9788170170969.

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A Hindu temple, also known as Mandir, Devasthanam, Pura, or , is a sacred place where Hindus worship and show their devotion to deities through worship, sacrifice, and prayers. It is considered the house of the god to whom it is dedicated.

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Notes

1. In 1979, the Committee decided to inscribe the Ohrid Lake on the World Heritage List under natural criteria (iii). In 1980, this property was extended to include the cultural and historical area, and cultural criteria (i)(iii)(iv) were added.

2. Extension of the "Australian East Coast Temperate and Subtropical Rainforest Park".

name changed 2007 from 'Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves (Australia)'

3. Renomination of "Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park" under cultural criteria.

4. The "Belfries of Flanders and Wallonia" which were previously inscribed on the World Heritage List, are part of the transnational property "The Belfries of Belgium and France".

5. Extension of "Jaú National Park".

6. Extension of the "Glacier Bay/Wrangell/St Elias/Kluane" property.

7. The "Burgess Shale" property, which was previously inscribed on the World Heritage List, is part of the "Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks".

8. Extension of "The Potala Palace and the Jokhang Temple Monastery, Lhasa" to include the Norbulingka area.

9. The "Belfries of Flanders and Wallonia" which were previously inscribed on the World Heritage List, are part of the transnational property "The Belfries of Belgium and France".

10. The "Chateau and Estate of Chambord", which was previously inscribed on the World Heritage List, is part of the "Loire Valley between Sully-sur-Loire and Chalonnes".

11. The "Hadrian's Wall" which was previously inscribed on the World Heritage List, is part of the transnational property "Frontiers of the Roman Empire".

12. At the time the property was extended, cultural criterion (iv) was also found applicable.

13. The "Brihadisvara Temple, Tanjavur", which was previously inscribed on the World Heritage List, is part of the "Great Living Chola Temples".

14. At the time the property was extended, cultural criterion (iv) was also found applicable.

15. At the time the property was extended, criteria (iii) and (v) were also found applicable.

16. The Committee decided to extend the existing cultural property, the "Temple of Ggantija", to include the five prehistoric temples situated on the islands of Malta and Gozo and to rename the property as "The Megalithic Temples of Malta".

17. The Westland and Mount Cook National Park and the Fiordland National Park, which were previously inscribed on the World Heritage List, are part of the "Te Wahipounamu - South West New Zealand".

18. In 1979, the Committee decided to inscribe the Ohrid Lake on the World Heritage List under natural criteria (iii). In 1980, this property was extended to include the cultural and historical area, and cultural criteria (i)(iii)(iv) were added.

19. The "Convent Ensemble of San Francisco de Lima", which was previously inscribed on the World Heritage List, is part of the "Historic Centre of Lima".

20. Extension de " Sites d'art rupestre préhistorique de la vallée de Côa ", Portugal

21. Extension of "Biertan and its Fortified Church".

22. At the time the property was extended, natural criterion (iv) was also found applicable.

23. Extension of the "Alhambra and the Generalife, Granada", to include the Albayzin quarter.

24. Extension of the "Mosque of Cordoba".

25. The property "Parque Güell, Palacio Güell and Casa Mila in Barcelona", previously inscribed on the World Heritage List, is part of the "Works of Antoni Gaudí".

26. Extension of the "Churches of the Kingdom of the Asturias", to include monuments in the city of Oviedo.

27. Extension of the "Mudejar Architecture of Teruel".

28. Extension de " Sites d'art rupestre préhistorique de la vallée de Côa ", Portugal

29. Following a survey of ownership carried out in the late 1960s, ownership of the totality of the walls was vested in 1973 in the Spanish State, through the Ministry of Education and Science. It was transferred to the Xunta de Galicia by Royal Decree in 1994.

The Spanish Constitution reserves certain rights in relation to the heritage to the central government. However, these are delegated to the competent agencies in the Autonomous Communities, in this case the Xunta de Galicia. For the Lugo walls the Xunta is in the position of both owner and competent agency. Under the Galician Heritage Law the Xunta is required to cooperate with the municipal authorities in ensuring the protection and conservation of listed monuments, and certain functions are delegated down to them. The Xunta operates through its General Directorate of Cultural Heritage (Dirección General de Patrimonio Cultural), based in Santiago de Compostela.

The Master Plan for the Conservation and Restoration of the Roman Walls of Lugo (1992) covered proposals for actions to be taken in respect of research and techniques of restoration. This was followed in 1997 by the Special Plan for the Protection and Internal Reform of the Fortified Enceinte of the Town of Lugo, which is concerned principally with the urban environment of the historic town. However, it has a direct impact on the protection afforded to the walls, in terms of traffic planning, the creation of open spaces, and regulation of building heights. Another planning instrument which affects the walls is the Special Plan for the Protection of the Miño [river], approved by the municipality at the beginning of 1998.

There is at the present time no management plan sensu stricto for the walls in operation in Lugo: work is continuing on the basis of the 1992 plan. Nor is there a technical unit specifically responsible for the conservation and restoration of the walls. It is against this background that serious consideration is being given to the creation of an independent foundation, under royal patronage and with representatives from government, academic, voluntary, and business institutions, to work with the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage of Galicia. The work plan of this body would include the development and implementation of integrated conservation, restoration, and maintenance programmes.

30. The WH area is managed directly by the Divisional Forest Officer from the Forest Dept. A national steering Committee co-ordinates institutions for Sinharaja as a National Wilderness Area, Biosphere Reserve (1988), and WH site. There are two management plans, prepared in 1985/86 and 1992/94, which emphasise conservation, scientific research, buffer zone management, benefit-sharing, and community participation.

31. The "Hadrian's Wall" which was previously inscribed on the World Heritage List, is part of the transnational property "Frontiers of the Roman Empire".

32. Extension of "Gough Island Wildlife Reserve".

33. (renomination under cultural criteria)

34. Extension of the "Glacier Bay/Wrangell/St Elias/Kluane" property.

*: transboundary property

#: As for 19 Natural and Mixed Properties inscribed for geological values before 1994, criteria numbering of this property has changed. See Decision 30.COM 8D.1

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Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's treasures online.

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BBC - Travel - The world’s most beautiful places of worship

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BBC - Travel - The world’s most beautiful places of worship

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With their awe-inspiring architecture, magnificent facades and sheer size, places of worship are often some of the most beautiful buildings in the world. No matter the religion, travellers from around the world can appreciate the work that led to their creation.

To find out which spots are most spectacular, we turned to question-and answer site Quora.com to ask: "What is the most beautiful place of worship in the world?"

Users' responses ranged across continents and across religions, including mosques, temples, synagogues and basilicas. Though perhaps forged by a single faith, each of these buildings has a beauty that transcends any single belief and brings together visitors from every creed and culture.

Brihadeeswara Temple, Known locally as "The Big Temple", this enormous granite Hindu sanctuary in Tamil Nadu was built in 1010 by then emperor Rja Rja Chola I, known as one of India's greatest leaders.

"I visited this temple for the first time when I was in ninth standard as a part of our school tour," wrote Sharmila Ashraf from New Delhi. "My love for architects and architecture started here. This temple is not only beautiful, but has a fascinating history."

Part of that history is the mystery of how the single stone kumbam (the structure on top of the temple) was transported to the site. The solid piece of rock weighs more than 70,000kg - and the nearest granite sources are more than 60km away. A 20,000kg statue of Nandi (the bull mount of the Hindu god Shiva) is also carved out of a single stone and sits at the entrance to the temple.

The huge temple grounds, more than 320,000sqm, deserve their own time for wandering contemplation. "The temple is so wide and so large that one has to rest while seeing the ancient carvings on the gigantic walls," Ashraf said. "It's the finest example of our architecture achieved during Chola dynasty. A magnum opus."

Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem
One of the world's best-known places of worship, the Dome of the Rock is "quite the sight", said Jennifer Alam from Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Located on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the 7th-century shrine is one of the city's most recognised landmarks, particularly for its impressive dome that was refinished in the 1990s with more than 80kg of gold. The octagonal design and colourful mosaics are thought to be modelled on Byzantine churches and chapels.

The Dome of the Rock is significant across religions. The Foundation Stone, located in the shrine's floor, is one of Judaism's holiest sites, thought to be where the world was first created. It's also known to be the site of sacrifices by biblical figures such as Adam, Abraham and Noah. Many who follow the faith continue to pray in its direction. In Islam, the site is thought to be Muhammad's final destination during the Night Journey from Mecca to Jerusalem.

Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar
Though historians believe that this Buddhist pagoda was built between the 6th and 10th Centuries, legend has that the structure is more than 2,500 years old, constructed by two brothers who met the Lord Gautama Buddha, known also as Siddhārthaand the primary figure in Buddhism. Relics of all four Buddha are said to be housed in the structure.

Regardless of its true origin, people have a deep-seated reaction upon entering the site.

"Even though the pagoda lies at the heart of Yangon, the busiest centre of the city, once you walk inside the place, you almost hear no noise," wrote Dzung Dang, who lives in Boston. "The feeling of calm and peace traverse and embrace me. I could just sit there for hours, either to meditate, to admire the beauty of the pagoda or to think about nothing."

Genuine gold plates cover the base of the stupa, giving the structure its nickname the "Golden Pagoda"; people across the country have regularly donated the precious metal to keep its appearance over the years. The gilded exterior continues its way up to the top of the pagoda; the crown is decorated with more than 5,000 diamonds and 2,000 rubies, and the tip features a single 76-carat diamond.

St Peter's Basilica, The Vatican
It may be constantly overrun with tourists, but even that doesn't take away from the magnificence of this Catholic and Christian cornerstone. "I don't think that anyone could argue against its beauty," wrote Robert Carbury.

One of the largest churches in the world, St Peter's is considered to be the pre-eminent example of Renaissance architecture, designed in part by Donato Bramante, Michelangelo Buonarroti and other notable Italian architects.

Though a church has been on this site since the Roman Empire, the current structure was completed in 1626. It features the tallest dome in the world - more than 130m high - and is lavishly decorated with marble, architectural reliefs and some of the world's most detailed sculptures, include Michelangelo's Pietà.

" No photographs in any way truly capture the beauty, grandeur or even the vastness of St Peter's," Carbury added.

Lotus Temple, India
Religious architecture does not have to be ancient to be beautiful. In fact, one of the most stunning and interesting buildings was built in 1986. The Lotus Temple, a Bahá'í House of Worship in New Delhi, India, gets its name from the 27 blooming "petal" structures that shape the skyline.

"Notable for its flowerlike shape, it has become a prominent attraction in the city," wrote Murali Krishnan from Chennai in a similar Quora thread. "[It] has won numerous architectural awards and has received wide range of attention in architectural, fine art, religious, governmental and other venues."

Open to people of all faiths, the white-marble temple can hold up to 2,500 people in its domed interior and has even surpassed the Taj Mahal in annual visitors.

Nasir ol Molk Mosque, Iran
Built in 1888, Shiraz's "Pink Mosque" - so nicknamed for the extensive pink tiles within its interior - garnered special attention due to its intense colours.

"The kaleidoscope of colours are just simply - for the lack of a better word - insane," wrote Monique Loise Chiong from the Philippines. "I cannot put into words how amazing and stunning the detail and artistry are."

The building features extensive coloured glass for its windows (best seen in the morning when the light hits it directly), ornate Persian carpets and meticulously detailed geometric wall paintings.

The Paro Taktsang, Bhutan
Situated on a steep cliff 3,800m above the lush Paro Valley, The Tiger's Nest monastery may not be easy to get to, but the journey through woods and past waterfalls garners its own sense of wonder.

"The view once you reach the monastery is stunning," wrote Arun Mulbagal from Bengaluru, India. "The fragrance of the incense accosts you and you are left charmed and marvelling at the faith that brings people, young and old, to pray here."

The Himalayan Buddhist sacred site and temples were built in 1692. Though legends vary on how he made his way to the site, Guru Padmasambhava was thought to have meditated here for more than three years, and is credited with bringing Buddhism to Bhutan. The four main temples and four-sided courtyard are all intricately painted with demigods and Buddha fighting demons, creating a sense of divine grandeur.

"The happiness one feels while inside the monastery is quite something," Mulbagal added. "You sit down on the floor and try to pray, and the aura of the place washes over you and all you wish for is eternal peace and happiness."

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The world's most beautiful places of worship

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With their awe-inspiring architecture, magnificent facades and sheer size, places of worship are often some of the most beautiful buildings in the world. No matter the religion, travellers from around the world can appreciate the work that led to their creation.

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17 of the World’s Most Awe-Inspiring Religious Structures

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17 of the World’s Most Awe-Inspiring Religious Structures

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Note: Thanks to popular request, we've added some additional items to our list!
I think whether or not you're religious, spiritual, or no where near the middle, religious architecture deserves a special mention. In my travels around the world I've seen so many houses of worship that were created with a devout attention to detail, a loving appreciation for aesthetics.

As any architect would tell you, religious structures both new and old are designed for the overall experience. Personally, if I've had a stressful travel day, or feeling the need for a little pick-me-up beyond the local latte, I find that places like these below - presented in no special order - can provide you a spiritual pat-on-the-back and a little vacation pick-me-up.

The Great Synagogue - Budapest, Hungary

The exterior of this Budapest synagogue is quiet unique - you see architectural influences of the Moors, Gothic features, and of course a few traditional Jewish traditions. Inside, by tour only, you'll be blown away by the incredible interior, one of the largest and most beautiful synagogues in the world. Don't miss the beautiful artwork, particularly the weeping willow installation out back.

The Monasteries of Meteora, Greece

Like many of the entries in this photo essay, sometimes it's less about the building and more about the location.

The caves of Meteora were inhabited over 50 centuries ago - but these incredible clifftop monasteries were build in the 1400s and 1500s. There were more but only 6 are left, all still as incredible as when built, and all still accesed by tiny staircases carved into the rocks.

The Church of St. George, Lalibela, Ethiopia

What's interesting about the amazing 12th century churches is that there were not build, but excavated - the roofs of the churches sit level with the ground. Despite their incredible size and intricate details, they were built with hammer and chisel only, and have remained in continuous use.

There are 11 churches here, but the most lavish is St. Georges, with its iconic Greek cross roof. The interior of the church is rather plain, which seems fitting - the beauty is the building.

Taktsang Palphug Monastery ("Tiger's Nest") - Paro Valley, Bhutan

This incredible cliffside monastery was built in in the late 1600s around the cave where one of the founders of Buddhism in Bhutan is said to have meditated for three months. There are several ways to access the monastery, and perhaps walking through the mist is the perfect way to arrive at such a sacred place.

Wat Rong Khun - Chiang Rai, Thailand

I love how the white color of this template evokes such a vivid experience. This is actually a contemporary building - it was built between 1997-2008, though it excudes the classic sensibilities of all of the templates throughout Thailand. The modernness is reflected in the interior imagery too - many Hollywood films make an appearance!

Sagrada Familia - Barcelona, Spain

Perhaps the world's most famous church, still under construction. Work began in 1882 is expected to finish in 2041; the architect, Gaudi, is buired in the crypt. There are 18 towers to the temple and I highly suggest taking plenty of time for this visit, as there are so many various nooks and crannies to explore - and literally hundreds of unique photo opportunities.

Mont Saint Michel - Normandy, France

Mont Saint Michel is one of the most evocative religious structures in France, which is saying something considering the many beautiful abbeys and churches that cover the country. Mont Saint Michel sits on a small natural island. The increase in visitors here and the building of a causeway has caused a disturbance of how the tides ebb and flow around the church, but work is ongoing to return this to its original state - including a pedestrian-only bridge, which is sure to be a better travel experience.

Shwedagon Paya - Yangon, Myanmar

This religious site is hundreds of years old and this is the oldest Pagoda in the world, and it has many unique traditions associated with a pilgrimage here. The Pagoda is covered in pieces of gold leaf donated my locals, a tradition that dates back to the 15th century. The dome is covered in thousands of diamonds and rubies, and inside is the most precious of all relics in Buddhism: eight strands of Buddah's hair.

Potala Palace

The Great Fifth dalai Lama started building this incredible fortress in 1645. It's part museum, part chapel, part government buidling. It's was the residence of the Dalai Lama until 1959, and is the resting place for the former Dalai Lamas. The walk up the steps is quite strenuous as the elevation of the palace is quite high - by intention, as this area was thought to be well protected.

Borgund Stave Church - Norway

Dating back to 1180, this must be one of the prettiest churches in all of Europe. The church's wonderful carvings have been well preserved and despite building architectually simple, it's still a stunning and paceful place. While you are here I suggest enjoying a walk on Vindhellavegen and Sverrestigen - about a 2 hour loop.

Angkor Thom - Siem Reap, Cambodia

It's hard to believe that the temples at Siem Reap were a working city - and a city of such incredible proportions. The hustle and bustle of Siem Reap would have paled in comparison. And now, just these incredible monuments remain, with their mysteriousness.

I loved many of the monuments, but perhaps the ancient stone faces of Angkor Thom left the biggest impression. What did they mean? Where happen to the people who made them?

Las Lajas Sanctuary - Ipiales, Colombia

Many people don't think of religious architecture when you think of Colombia, but the Las Lajas leaves a lasting impression. The church sits right on a beautiful river gorge, in fine view of a waterfall cascade. You'll spend hours wandering the area looking for the perfect photo spot - there are many!

The Temple of Heaven - Beijing, China

This is the crown jewel of Bejing's Taoist building complex. It was built in the early 1400s and the architecture, both inside and outside, feels so bold and strong yet also simple, minimalist. There are several buildings and religious monuments in the area, such as the beautiful Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. It's one of the popular tourist attractions in Beijing.

Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood - Saint Petersburg, Russia

One can't visit Saint Petersburg without getting a great photo of this church, perhaps one of the most iconic images of Russia. It was named after the assassination of Alexander II. The church has more mosaics than any other in the worlds, and even on a blustery cold winter afternoon, it's one of the prettiest spots in this wonderful city, which is home to a lot of spectacular architecture.

The Golden Temple - Amritsar, India

India is home to some incredible religious architecture, but perhaps the Gold Temple is the most touching. Officially the "Harmandir Sahib," the building is considered one of the holiest sites by the Sikhs. The lake it sits on was enlarged after the original construction, and the gold plating that gives the temple its ethereal glow was added also in a late addition.

Durham Cathedral - Durham City, England

Durham City is a personal favorite stop for me in Northern England. The cathedral here is the best piece of Norman architecture in the world, and the tops of the towers jut up in the sky, tempting passers by on the London-Edinburgh train to stop for a look. A tour inside is a must, as well as a look up on the roof, which offers some spectacular views on a sunny day.

The Vatican - Rome, Italy

Last but not least, by popular request from our readers is the Vatican, perhaps one of the most famous churches in the world. It's a massive complex of corridors and cathedrals, courtyards and vestibules, all steeped in the ancient rituals and rites of the catholic church, many of which still in active practice for centuries. (Try using an ATM - they're in Latin!)

Photos by Flickr CC: Emmanuel Dyan, wentuq, Alastair Rae, zzkt, Muleonor, JSome1, Benjamin Feron, AntwerpenR, MartinLiao, zoetnet, archer10, Carlos Adampol, Lall, Simon Goldenberg, appaji, leuan jenkins, public domain

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17 of the World's Most Awe-Inspiring Religious Structures

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Note: Thanks to popular request, we've added some additional items to our list! I think whether or not you're religious, spiritual, or no where near the middle, religious architecture deserves a special mention. In my travels around the world I've seen so many houses of worship that were created with a devout attention to detail, [...]

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13 Amazing Religious Buildings Across The World

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13 Amazing Religious Buildings Across The World

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Ngu Hanh Son, or the Marble Mountains, are a group of five towering mountains, located south of Danang City, Vietnam, and named after metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. In the 19th century, Hindu and Buddhist grottos were built in the caves and tunnels running through the mountains . One with a particularly religious feeling is the Huyen Khong Grotto, where there is no light except for that cast through the holes in the ceiling of the cave. These classically religious qualities are made further atmospheric by the seclusion of being in hidden caves, accessed by stone steps leading up into the mountains.

Temppeliaukio Church

Carving a place of quietude and magnificence out of a cityscape, the Rock Church in Helsinki was built by two brothers in 1969. It was built out of a pre-existing granite structure, making it ambiguous in its appearance from the outside. This Lutheran church is spectacular in its incorporation of natural elements, the rays of light that flood through the skylights, the ice-age crevice as an altar piece, overarching copper dome, and the solid rock walls. There is little surprise that it is one of Helsinki's most visited buildings.

Mont Saint-Michel

Just 600 meters from the Normandy coastline, this Benedictine abbey stands with a magnetic and mysterious beauty at the highest point of the small rock formation. Built in Gothic style and completed in 1523, it is accessible only at low tide, by crossing the shores and then winding up the steep streets to the abbey at the pinnacle of the island. It was originally a site for a huge number of pilgrims, attracting many craftspeople during the Middle Ages, and it continues to draw great numbers to this day. The island has been under various controls, from the Vikings to Benedictine monks, and this complex past is palpable.

St. Michael's Mount

With a church and castle at the peak of the rocky island, St. Michael's Mount in Eng land shares many similarities with its French counterpart, Mont Saint-Michel. A gift to the Benedictines, St. Michael's Mount was occupied by the same religious order as the French island. A similarly atmospheric site, accessible only across the man-made granite causeway when the tide is out or low, St. Michael's Mount is a place of isolation and curiosity. The stories surrounding its history only serve to further this feeling, with tales of giants being slayed and visions of St. Michael the Archangel.

Salt Lake Tabernacle

Supposedly described by Oscar Wilde as the most purely dreadful building he ever saw, this Mormon churc h and feat of engineering was designed by Henry Grow, utilizing his experience in bridge construction. Built between 1864 and 1867, the church can hold 7,000 people and has one the largest pipe organs in the world. While disliked by Wilde, and described by some as the 'Church of the Holy Turtle,' it was described by Frank Lloyd Wright as 'one of the architectural masterpieces of the country and perhaps the world.' Rightly so, the atmosphere created by the magnitude alone is overwhelmingly powerful.

Dilwara Temple

Built between the 11 th and 13 th centuries, these five temples of Dilwara are a famous place of pilgrimage in Rajasthan for followers of Jainism. The simple architecture of the buildings themselves reflects the honest and anti-materialistic values of the religion. Vimal Vasahi, built in 1031, is the most famous and arguably most impressive of the temples, carved entirely out of white marble. With intricately detailed floors, doorways, ceilings and pillars, and mesmerizing in its attention to detail, it is believed to have taken 1,500 masons and 1,200 laborers 14 years to build.

Pura Tanah Lot

Pura Tanah Lot sits upon a rock offshore of Bali, as part of a chain of seven sea temples established along the southwestern coast. Though only Balinese people can enter the temple, a huge number of tourists visit to see it from just the outside. It serves as an important place of pilgrimage and is deeply woven with the Balinese mythology. A place of worship to Balinese sea gods, it was constructed in the 16th century. It is believed there are venomous sea snakes guarding the temple from intruders. With its seclusion and dedication, this is truly a mystical place.

Sultan Ahmed 'Blue' Mosque And Hagia Sophia

Standing at opposite ends of the same square, these two buildings are hugely representative of Istanbuls heritage. Hagia Sophia is an example of Byzantine architecture and was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly 1,000 years, formerly a Greek Orthodox cathedral, briefly a Roman Catholic cathedral, then a mosque, and now it is a museum. Its structure and design influenced that of the Blue Mosque, completed in 1616. With the exquisite blue running through the interior, in the tiles and the stained glass, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque honors aspects of the design of its neighbor while moving forward in scale. It was built to accommodate a staggering 10,000 people during prayer.

Teotihuacan

With the 'Avenue of the Dead' running through its center, surrounded with many impressive structures, including two great pyramids, one for the Sun, one for the Moon, and famous as being sites of both human and animal sacrifice, Teotihuacan, in Mexico, was one of the largest pre-Columbian cities in the Americas. The founders and builders of this ancient city remain disputed, but it is thought to have been established around 100 BCE and reached its most prolific point around 450 CE. The scale and history of this site make it truly extraordinary.

Prambanan

As the largest Hindu temple site in Indonesia, with originally over 240 temples as part of the structure, Prambanan is a display of archetypal Hindu architecture. Built in around 850 CE, with impressive and detailed features, the exquisite intricacy of the reliefs, and the beauty of the architecture make it stand out amongst the rest. With a central temple of 154ft and dedicated to the 'Trimurti', the Hindu deities, Shiva, Brahma and Vishnu, the complex of buildings are a religious site of both extensive scale and minute detail.

Potala Palace

The structure as it stands now was constructed under the rule of the 5 th Dalai Lama in 1645, taking more than 50 years to complete. Potala Palace served as the seat of Tibetian government as well the winter residence of the Dalai Lamas. 'The White Palace' functions as the living quarters of the Dalai Lama, while 'The Red Palace' is dedicated to prayer and the religious teaching of Tibetan Buddhism. With a towering 13 stories and over a thousand rooms, it is such an impressive structure that Zhou Enlai even sent his own troops to defend it from the Red Guards during the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

Wat Rong Khun

Unusual in its inclusion of characters from The Matrix, Hello Kitty, and Angry Birds, this entirely white Thai temple re-imagines the meeting of art and religious building. ' The White Temple ' in English, construction began in 1997, and it is still a work in progress. The artist, Chalermchai Kositpipat, has formulated these religious teachings in the context of the modern world. An extremely visual and unusual building, it is groundbreaking in its reinterpretation of Buddhist teaching through modern figures and references.

Angkor Wat

Described by a Portuguese monk in the 16th century as 'of such extraordinary construction that it is not possible to describe it with a pen, particularly since it is like no other building in the world.' A network of over 100 stone temples built during the 12th century, Angkor Wat in Cambodia is the largest religious building on earth. Originally dedicated to Vishnu, a Hindu deity, it later became a Buddhist temple. A triumph of the Khmer Empire, representing qualities beyond the religious in its creative and structural ingenuity, it is clear why it is thought to be a miniature replica of the universe.

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13 Amazing Religious Buildings Across The World

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Ngu Hanh Son, or the Marble Mountains, are a group of five towering mountains, located south of Danang City, Vietnam, and named after metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. In the 19th century, Hindu and Buddhist grottos were built in the caves and tunnels running through the mountains .