The one object of archæological interest in Gaza is the Great Mosque (Djamia el Kebîr) which rises on the top of the hill in the middle of the upper city. This mosque is built upon the site of the Basilica, which the Empress Eudoxia founded, where the Marneion formerly stood, and was built of ancient materials. In the twelfth century it was a splendid cathedral dedicated to St. John Baptist. The style of architecture is severe, and the ornamentation very plain. The fine groined roof is entire. The mosque has three aisles, two of which formed part of the mediæval church. Rows of pillars, with Corinthian capitals, divide them one from the other. The roof of the central nave is supported by rows of pillars, one above the other, each pillar of the lower row having a cluster of small marble pillars round it, for greater strength. One of the upper pillars on the north-east side of the mosque, of grey veined marble, bears a bas-relief of a seven-branched candlestick, with a Greek and Hebrew inscription of three lines inside a wreath. It belongs, as M. Clermont-Ganneau surmises, to one of the thirty columns sent by the Empress Eudoxia, and probably comes from the Synagogue of Cæsarea.[43] The walls and ceiling are now whitewashed. The church was undoubtedly decorated with mosaic and pictures. The three apses have disappeared to make room for a large octagonal minaret. On the south side the Moslems have built an additional aisle. The total length of the building is one hundred and eight and a half feet, interior measure, the nave being twenty-one and a half feet wide, and the aisles thirteen feet. The west doorway is a beautiful mediæval specimen of the Italian Gothic of the twelfth century churches in Palestine, with delicate clustered shafts and pillars, deeply undercut lily-leaves adorning the capitals. Lieut. Kitchener, in 1874, took a photograph of the western door as well as the interior of the mosque. The large marble cruciform font has been removed and it now lies in the courtyard adjoining the mosque, where two other Christian symbols may be seen, viz. a bishop's staff, and chalice in marble.