One of several pictures where I show the apse and the conch above it, in which there is a mosaic of the Virgin with Child, I show that elsewhere. I kind of "zoom in" towards the prayer niche that now is in the centre of this area. To the right you can see on the first picture a part of the minbar (Arabic: منبر‎‎, also romanized as minibar or mimber) is a pulpit in the mosque where the imam (prayer leader) stands to deliver sermons.