Koutoubia Mosque

Interesting facts

The minaret has no stairs: a broad internal ramp winds past six stacked rooms, wide enough for the muezzin to ride a horse to the top.

In the first mosque, a screen for the caliph rose from the floor by itself and the pulpit rolled out unaided, devised by an engineer from Málaga.

Excavations have confirmed that this self-moving mechanism really existed; it probably worked with hidden pulleys and counterweights.

According to legend, the copper orbs on the finial are solid gold, one of them cast from a queen's jewellery as penance for breaking her Ramadan fast.

The green and white tiles near the top of the minaret are considered the earliest reliably dated zellij tilework in Morocco.

Until the 1990s the minaret was coated in pink plaster; removing it exposed the stonework and traces of rare Almohad painted decoration in ochre.

With a height more than five times its width, the minaret marked a shift towards taller, slimmer towers across the Maghreb.

In 1157 a celebrated Qur'an attributed to Caliph Uthman was brought here from the Great Mosque of Córdoba.

The Almohads oriented both mosques at about 154 to 161 degrees, far from Mecca's true direction of 91 degrees, following an older western Islamic tradition.

Winston Churchill painted the minaret after the 1943 Casablanca Conference; the canvas is known as Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque.

Why it is worth it

The minaret of the Koutoubia is the landmark by which Marrakesh has measured itself for eight centuries. It rises about 77 m, its main square shaft almost 13 m wide, built of rubble masonry and sandstone that takes on a pink-gold tone in the evening. Bands of interlaced lobed arches — the lattice pattern called sebka — cover the upper shaft, a strip of white and green glazed tile runs near the top, stepped merlons crown it, and the small lantern above ends in a finial of copper globes, the largest about 2 m across. Beside them is the pole on which the green flag is raised for Friday prayer. Local rules still forbid tall buildings nearby so that nothing competes with it.

The mosque was founded in 1147 by the Almohad caliph Abd al-Mu'min, just after he took the city from the Almoravids. A first mosque was finished around 1157, and almost immediately a second, larger one was built beside it ; both are oriented well away from the true direction of Mecca. The present building, of about 1158 to 1195, has 17 parallel naves on more than a hundred pillars, a plan that looks back to the Great Mosque of Córdoba, with five elaborate muqarnas cupolas. The remains of the first mosque have been excavated on its northwest side and can be seen on the northwest side. The name comes from the kutubiyyin, the booksellers who once traded in the surrounding streets.

The Koutoubia's influence travelled across the strait. Its minaret is regarded as the model for the Almohad towers that followed — the Hassan Tower in Rabat and the Giralda in Seville. Its famous minbar, made in Córdoba around 1137 for the Almoravid ruler Ali ibn Yusuf from cedar and other woods with dense marquetry, was moved in 1962 to the Badi Palace. The prayer hall is open to Muslims only; large gardens, including a rose garden, flank the mosque.

Getting there

The mosque stands on Avenue Mohammed V about 200 m west of the Jemaa el-Fna square, in the southwest of the medina, roughly 1 km from the centre of Marrakesh. Marrakesh Menara Airport (RAK) is about 5 km away.

Koutoubia Mosque

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

Plan your visit

On these lists

From the encyclopaedia