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minaret
minaret , tower, used in Islamic architecture, from which the faithful are called to prayer by a muezzin. Most mosques have one or more small towers, which are usually placed at the corners. The earliest structures specifically built as minarets were the four low square towers at the four corners ...
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Arafat
Arafat or Arafa , granite hill, Saudi Arabia, near Mecca . The hill was an ancient pagan sanctuary and is shrouded in many legends. It is a site for prayers during the hajj , the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. Atop the hill is a minaret, reached by broad stone steps. On the 60th step is a ...
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Karbala
Karbala , city (1987 pop. 296,705), central Iraq, at the edge of the Syrian Desert. The city's trade is in religious objects, hides, wool, and dates. Karbala is the site of the tomb of the Shiite leader Husein , who was killed in the city in 680. It is second only to Mecca in being a holy place vis...
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Khiva
Khiva , city (1989 pop. 40,001), S Uzbekistan, in the Khiva oasis and on the Amu Darya River. Industries include metalworking, cotton and silk spinning, wood carving, and carpetmaking. The city, in existence by the 6th cent., was the capital of the Khwarazm (Khorezm) kingdom in the 7th and 8th cen...
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Marrakech
Marrakech or Marrakesh , city (1994 pop. 672,478), W central Morocco. The city, renowned for leather goods, is one of the principal commercial centers of Morocco and a major tourist center. It was founded (1062) by the Almoravid leader Yusuf ibn Tashfin and was the capital of Morocco from then u...
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Samarra
Samarra , town, N central Iraq, on the Tigris River. It is on the site of an ancient settlement and has given its name to a type of Neolithic pottery of the 5th millennium BC The present town was founded (836) by the Abbasid caliphs. Samarra's 17th-century, golden-domed mosque complex, sacred to S...
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Bukhara
Bukhara , city (1991 pop. 231,000), capital of Bukhara region, Uzbekistan, in the Zeravshan River valley. On the Shkhrud irrigation canal system, it is the center of a large cotton district and has textile mills as well as cotton-ginning industries and a large karakul skin processing plant. The popu...
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Eger
Eger , Ger. Erlau, city (1991 est. pop. 62,474), NE Hungary, on the Eger River. It is the commercial center of a wine-producing region and has food- and tobacco-processing plants. Eger is a center for tourists drawn by the nearby mineral springs and the Mátra Mts. One of the first Magyar se...
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mosque
mosque , building for worship used by members of the Islamic faith. Muhammad's house in Medina (AD 622), with its surrounding courtyard and hall with columns, became the prototype for the mosque where the faithful gathered for prayer.
Structure
The basic elements of a mosque are a place la...
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Pécs
Pécs , Ger. Fünfkirchen, city (1991 est. pop. 170,000), SW Hungary, near the Croatian border. A county administrative seat and a railroad hub, Pécs is the industrial center of Hungary's chief coking coal-mining region. Uranium was also produced nearby during the Communist era. B...
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