The first great Islamic building was the dome of the rock in Jerusalem.

The Muslims had take in

the city from the Byzantines in 638, and the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik directed the
monumental shrine between 687 and 692 as an architectural tribute to the triumph of Islam. The
shrine takes the form of an octagon with the towering dome. The interior is mosaic ornament is
largely intact and suggest the original appearance of the exterior walls. I can still lush vegetable
background, Abd al-Maliks mosaicists depicted crowns, jewels, chalices, and other royal
motives-A reference to the triumph of Islam over the Byzantine and Persian empires.

Around 1070, construction of the Saint Saturninus church was built in honor of Toulouses first
bishop. The interior of Saint Sernin included groin-vaulted tribune galleries that housed
overflow crowds and buttressed the naves Stone barrel vault whose transverse arches continue
the lines of the compound piers. The crossing Square, flanked by massive piers and marked off
by heavy arches, served as the module for the entire church. Saint-Sernin also features a Group
of Seven marble slabs representing angels, apostles, and Christ.
Stone sculpture had almost disappeared from the art of the western Europe during the early
middle ages. The revival of stone carving is a hallmark of the Romanesque age and one of the
reasons the period is aptly named.