Visitez la Tunisie - Kairouan, Tunisia
Posted by: 
Becktracker
N 35° 40.922 E 010° 06.176
32S E 599804 N 3949243
Poster of the Tunisia tourism office of the 1950's, displaying the great mosque of Kairouan
Waymark Code: WM16AZ9
Location: Tunisia
Date Posted: 06/18/2022
Views: 4
On this poster from the 1950's, the beyucal guard (guard of the Bey of Tunisia?) is posing in front of the minaret of the Great Mosque of Kairouan. The minaret itself is full with worshippers or tourists. The picture has been taken from outside the complex. The poster seems a bit grim for modern standards, but apparently the approval of the Beyucal guard was very important back then.
From (
visit link)
The Great Mosque of Kairouan, also known as the Mosque of Uqba, is a mosque situated in the UNESCO World Heritage town of Kairouan, Tunisia and is one of the most impressive and largest Islamic monuments in North Africa.
Established by the Arab general Uqba ibn Nafi in the year 50 AH (670AD/CE) at the founding of the city of Kairouan, the mosque occupies an area of over 9,000 square metres (97,000 sq ft). It is one of the oldest places of worship in the Islamic world, and is a model for all later mosques in the Maghreb. Its perimeter, of about 405 metres (1,329 ft), contains a hypostyle prayer hall, a marble-paved courtyard and a square minaret. In addition to its spiritual prestige, the Mosque of Uqba is one of the masterpieces of Islamic architecture, notable among other things for the first Islamic use of the horseshoe arch.
Extensive works under the Aghlabids two centuries later (9th Cent.AD/CE) gave the mosque its present aspect. The fame of the Mosque of Uqba and of the other holy sites at Kairouan helped the city to develop and expand. The university, consisting of scholars who taught in the mosque, was a centre of education both in Islamic thought and in the secular sciences. Its role at the time can be compared to that of the University of Paris in the Middle Ages.