Woohoo, here’s my newest video! This is a super-speedy 3.5-minute tour of the biggest monument you’ve never heard of: the Mshatta Facade.
The what?
Yes indeed, this building-sized monument is one of the three biggest objects in Berlin’s Pergamon Museum. You might have heard of the other two: the Pergamon Altar and the Ishtar Gate of Babylon – here’s my video about that one! But it is also one of the least known objects. Which is a shame, because it is not only gigantic but also beautiful and historically fascinating! (This article tells the history from its origin up to the present day, but only in German.)
The Mshatta Facade was part of a wall surrounding a desert palace. The palace was located near Amman, Jordan, but it was built long before Jordan existed as a country. It was built in the 700s CE! The piece preserved in the museum shows us the grandeur and artistry commanded by one of the first Islamic rulers of all time. As such an early piece of Islamic architecture, the Mshatta Facade is remarkable. It’s the biggest object in the collections of the Museum of Islamic Art (Museum für Islamische Kunst), which is housed in the Pergamon Museum.
Part of the motivation to make this video now is that the Mshatta Facade will be closed to visitors soon. While it is restored and moved to its new location in the north wing of the Pergamon Museum, you won’t be able to see it anymore.
And this could take quite some time… The museum renovations are going to take at least another 3 years, probably longer. A good chance to admire and document this amazing monument for the last time in a while!
Head on over to my video and let me know what you think. 🙂