The Great Mosque in Córdoba is a good example. Begun under Abd al-Rahman I
and expanded by his successors, it drew on the design of the Roman aqueduct at
Mérida for its rows of columns connected by double arches. (See Plate 3.4.) For the
shape of the arches, however, it borrowed a form—the “Visigothic” horseshoe arch
—from the Christians. For the decorative motif of alternating light and dark stones, it
looked to the Great Mosque of Damascus.
