Architecture
The structure is accessed from the east through a portal recess covered with a double cross-vault. In the 14th century, a low-lying arch was constructed across the recess in order to support the double arch of the original vault. The portal itself opens up to a cross-vaulted vestibule leading to the eastern iwan leading to the courtyard. To the south of the vestibule is a "horse-shoe" arched door topped by a 16-sided rosette window leading to the tomb chamber, and to the north is a staircase leading to the second floor which houses the madrasa's classrooms.
Read more about this topic: Nur Al-Din Madrasa
Famous quotes containing the word architecture:
“Defaced ruins of architecture and statuary, like the wrinkles of decrepitude of a once beautiful woman, only make one regret that one did not see them when they were enchanting.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“Poetry is not only dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before.”
—Audre Lorde (1934–1992)
“Polarized light showed the secret architecture of bodies; and when the second-sight of the mind is opened, now one color or form or gesture, and now another, has a pungency, as if a more interior ray had been emitted, disclosing its deep holdings in the frame of things.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)