ABSTRACT
The Dome of the Rock is one of the most famous structures in the world, appearing in every textbook on the history of art and often standing at the beginning of any discussion of Islamic art, of which it is generally reckoned the earliest well-preserved building. The recent restoration through a team led by Elizabeth Bolman of the Red Monastery at Sohag in Upper Egypt, gives a sense of the rich color that was sought; in that case it is with paint imitating what a building like the Dome of the Rock achieved with colored stones. The most important observation has to do with the arrangement of the columns in the inner circular arcade. It is hardly likely that the arrangement in the Dome of the Rock or perhaps also in the al-Aqsa Mosque was any kind of reference to the Nea Ekklesia, very possibly still standing when the Dome of the Rock was created.
