Kairouan - Tunisia
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denben
N 35° 40.936 E 010° 06.207
32S E 599850 N 3949269
Founded in 670, Kairouan flourished under the Aghlabid dynasty in the 9th century. Despite the transfer of the political capital to Tunis in the 12th century, Kairouan remained the Maghreb's principal holy city.
Waymark Code: WMKTBJ
Location: Tunisia
Date Posted: 05/27/2014
Views: 7
The Great Mosque also known as Mosque of Uqba, rebuilt in the 9th century, is not only one of the major monuments of Islam but also a universal architectural masterpiece. The many but small changes in it have not altered the layout of this place of prayer, which forms a quadrilateral of 135 m by 80 m. At its southern end is a hypostyle prayer room with 17 naves supported by a «forest» of columns in marble and porphyry. On the north is a vast flagstone courtyard bordered with porticoes, interrupted in the middle of the smaller northern end by the massive square-shaped three-storey minaret.
With the Great Mosque, the Mosque of the Three Doors, and the Basin of the Aghlabids, not to mention the numerous archaeological vestiges, Kairouan bears exceptional witness to the civilisation of the first centuries of the Hegira in Ifrîqiya.
Kairouan was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1988.
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