Since I didn't see any photographic record for Ayrshire, I thought I'd put one up.
The date of the original Nigg Old Church is not known, but the earliest written reference dtaes to 1296. It has been modified over the centuries and substantially rebuilt in 1626. It is looked after by Nigg Old Trust.
The first two photographs are of the Nigg Cross Slab, a Pictish carving of the late eighth or early ninth century.
The third and fourth are of the outside of the church, the fourth from the Bishop’s Walk.
The Almoravid Koubba, the only Almoravid building to survive intact in Morocco. It was probably used as an ablutions annex to the Ben Youssef Mosque.
In the course of the morning we visited the Ben Youssef Medersa, a Koranic School named after the Amoravid Sultan Ali ibn Yusuf (reigned 1106–1142), who expanded Marrakesh and its influence considerably. It is the largest Medrasa in all of Morocco.
The college was founded during the period of the Marinid (14th century) by the Marinid Sultan Abu el Hassan and allied to the neighbouring Ben Youssef Mosque. The building of the madrasa was re-constructed by the Saadian Sultan Abdallah al-Ghalib (1557–1574). In 1565 the works ordered by Abdallah al-Ghalib were finished, as confirmed by the inscription in the prayer room. Its 130 student dormitory cells cluster around a courtyard richly carved in cedar, marble and stucco. The carvings contain no representation of humans or animals as required by Islam, and consist entirely of inscriptions and geometric patterns. This madrasa was one of the largest theological colleges in North Africa and may have housed as many as 900 students. One of its best known teachers was Mohammed al-Ifrani (1670-1745).
Closed down in 1960, the building was refurbished and reopened to the public as an historical site in 1982.
