A riwaq (or rivaq, Arabic: رواق riwāq or ruwāq) is an arcade or portico (if in front of entrances) open on at least one side. It is an architectural design element in Islamic architecture and Islamic garden design.
A riwaq often serves as the transition space between interior and outdoor spaces. As portico or arcade structure, it provides shade and adjustment to sunlight in hot climates, and cover from rain in any locale.
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This article lists mosques from around the world by available capacity, that belong to any Islamic school or branch, that can accommodate at least 15,000 worshippers in all available places of prayer such as prayer halls (musala), courtyards (ṣaḥn) and porticoes (riwāq). All the mosques in this list are congregational mosques – a type of mosque that hosts the Friday prayer (ṣalāt al-jumuʿa) in congregation (jamāʿa).
The Temple Mount (Biblical Hebrew: הַר הַבַּיִת, romanized: Har hab-Bayiṯ, (Arabic: الأَقْصَى, romanized: al-Aqṣā)) is a hill in the Old City of Jerusalem. Once the site of two successive Temples in Jerusalem, it is now home to the Islamic compound known as al-Aqsa, which includes the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. It has been venerated as a holy site for thousands of years, including in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
The present site is a flat plaza surrounded by retaining walls (including the Western Wall), which were originally built by Herod the Great in the first century BCE to expand the Second Temple. The plaza is dominated by two monumental structures originally built during the Rashidun and early Umayyad caliphates after the 637 first Muslim conquest of Jerusalem: the Qibli Mosque of al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock, near the center of the hill, which was completed in 692, making it one of the oldest extant Muslim structures in the world. The Herodian walls and gates, with additions from the late Byzantine, early Muslim, Mamluk, and Ottoman periods, flank the site, which can be reached through eleven gates, ten reserved for Muslims and one for non-Muslims, with guard posts of the Israel Police in the vicinity of each. The courtyard is surrounded on the north and west by two Mamluk-era porticos or arcades (arwiqa) and four minarets.
A sahn (Arabic: صَحْن, ṣaḥn), is a courtyard in Islamic architecture, especially the formal courtyard of a mosque. Most traditional mosques have a large central sahn, which is surrounded by a riwaq or arcade on all sides.