The Royal Asiatic Society is indebted to the courtesy of the Royal Institute of British Architects for a copy of the article published in its Journal (vol. iv, 3rd ser., Nos. 2 and 3)—a paper read at a meeting of the Society in November last, by Mr. R. Phene Spiers, F.S.A., on the great mosque of Damascus. The paper offers us an historical account of the building, adescription of the surviving vestiges of the old temple, and of the Christian Church of St. John the Baptist, including the well-known Greek inscription over the Southern Gateway, particulars on the conversion of the building into a mosque by the Omayyad Khalīfahal-Walīd, of the changes the mosque has undergone during the past period of well-nigh twelve centuries, and last, though not least, itgives us a careful and minute description of the building as it existed previous to the fire of 1893. Thenumerous plans and drawings with which the paper is illustrated, whilst attractingnotice by their beauty, are of no small assistance to the reader in studying the text.