Near Eastern architecture

The Crusades were a series of terrible battles between Christians and Muslims in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries AD over the Holy Land. People coming back from the Crusades, particularly the Knights Templar and the Knights Hospitaller, built churches in Near Eastern styles.

There was a Templar’s preceptory at Moat Farm in Gerrards Cross, and two Hospitaller’s preceptories at Hogshaw and near Marlow. A Templar church would look like the Temple in London; see www.templechurch.com.

Compare this with Near Eastern sites in Turkey, Palestine, Israel and Jordan on the World Heritage Sites website whc.unesco.org/en/list/ . The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey, for instance, was originally an early Christian church but is now a Mosque.

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