SkyWatch: The Mameluke Mosque Lanterns at Night

The Mameluke Mosque Lanterns has to be one of the most striking and beautiful works of art in the entire city of Jeddah. At night when they are illuminated from within, they are nothing short of breathtaking. So I have a pitch black sky for you today, not a blue or grey one, no clouds – but I was so excited to get these photos, I wanted to share them with you for SkyWatch.

The steel and stained glass lanterns were the brainchild of Julio Lafuente, the prolific Spanish architect who created more than twenty-five masterpieces during the unprecedented Jeddah Beautification Project of the 1970s and 80s. The original plan was to place these four magnificent large scale lanterns as the four corners on a square, but in the end configuring them in a straight line prevailed.

The monument occupies a large area of a main road divider which faces the Al Salam Royal Palace. All these photos were taken from across the street with traffic zooming by at about 2am during the holy month of Ramadan.
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