Highlights from SAHARA: Houses of Worship

Religious buildings constitute one of the richest collections in SAHARA. From iconic structures like Angkor Wat and Saint Paul’s Cathedral to rural churches and ruinous temple sites, houses of worship showcase the breadth of interest of SAHARA contributors as well as their geographic reach. This set of highlights includes an extraordinary 16th-century church in Guatemala as well as a mosque in the shadow of the Acropolis. Every major world religion is well covered in the larger collection, which includes standard survey-course material as well as much lesser-known and difficult-to-find buildings. Searching on “temple,” “mosque,” “church,” or “worship” will produce hundreds of high quality photographs of sites around the globe.

To visit this collection and others in SAHARA go to: http://sahara.artstor.org/library/portals/SAHARA/rloginSAH.html 

And to learn more about contributing to SAHARA, visit: http://www.sah.org/publications-and-research/sahara


Teotihuacán, Mexico, 100 BCE to 800 CE, pyramid leading to Temple of the Feathered Serpent, with view toward Pyramid of the Moon. Photograph by Amber N. Wiley.


Suryavarman II, patron, Angkor Wat, Angkor, Cambodia, 1113 CE to ca. 1150 CE, entrance causeway to Third Enclosure, west façade. Photograph by Mark Jarzombek.


Church of San Cristobal Acasaguastlan, Acasaguastlan, El Progreso, Guatemala, 16th century. Photograph by Nelly E. Ramirez Klee.


Nicholas Hawksmoor, St. Mary, Woolnoth, London, England, 1716-1727. Photograph by Jeffrey E. Klee.


Tzistarakis Mosque, Monastiraki Square, Athens, Periféreia Protevoúsis, Greece, 1759, partially rebuilt 1915 by Anastasios Orlandos. Photograph by Dell Upton.


L. Bonnet-Labranche and Louis Queyrel, Cathédrale Saint-Vincent-de-Paul-Sainte Olive, Tunis, Tunisia, 1892-1897. Photograph by Nancy Demerdash.


Minoru Yamasaki, North Shore Congregation Israel Synagogue, Glencoe, Illinois, 1961. Photograph by G. E. Kidder Smith.