North Africa · a Light

The oldest standing minaret is a square tower in Tunisia

Uqba ibn Nafi founded Kairouan in 670 as a garrison in the Tunisian steppe. Its great mosque was rebuilt several times, most substantially by the Aghlabid ruler Ziyadat Allah I around 836, and that is essentially the building that stands. Its massive three tiered square tower is generally taken to be the oldest minaret still standing anywhere, with a lower section that may be older still. The prayer hall rests on roughly four hundred columns carried in from Roman and Byzantine ruins across the region, no two bays quite alike. Around the prayer niche are lustre tiles brought from Iraq in the ninth century. The city became the centre where Maliki law was written down, in Sahnun's Mudawwana.

Kairouan, Tunisia · founded 670, rebuilt c. 836