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By Xander Lopez
The Pillar in the Horizon
The Pillar in the Horizon
The Koutoubia Mosque is the main Almohad congregational mosque in Marrakesh and one of the dynasty’s best-known monuments. It was founded soon after the Almohad caliph ʿAbd al-Muʾmin captured the city from the Almoravids in 1147 and stands on the site of an earlier Almoravid palace in the southwest part of the old city (Archnet, n.d.)
The mosque that survives today is the second Kutubiyya mosque built on this plot. ʿAbd al-Muʾmin first constructed a Friday mosque aligned with the older palace, then commissioned a second hall slightly to the south when Almohad scholars judged the original prayer hall unsatisfactory. Only this later mosque remained in use, but the complex still sits on layers of Almoravid and early Almohad construction (Archnet, n.d., Discover Islamic Art, n.d).
Modern historians treat Koutoubia as a kind of architectural signature for the Almohad regime. In the twelfth century it helped announce the dynasty’s authority in its western capital, while today it remains a key symbol of Marrakesh in photography, tourism, and public memory (Stockstill, 2022).
Koutoubia City Views
Koutoubia City Views
Koutoubia stands just southwest of the historic center of Marrakesh, near the large market square of Jemaa al-Fna and the former royal quarters of the Almoravid and Almohad dynasties. Aerial views show how the tall minaret marks the edge of the old city and rises above the low roofs of the surrounding medina (Archnet, n.d.).
Ground-level photographs from the square and gardens illustrate how the tower appears at the end of streets or framed by rows of trees. The minaret functions as a visual reference point when moving through the city; local building regulations restrict nearby heights so that the palms and the tower remain the dominant vertical elements on the skyline.
Exterior Garnishes
Exterior Garnishes
The mosque and minaret are constructed mainly in brick and sandstone, coated with plaster and carved decoration. About halfway up the tower, a field of blind arcades and horseshoe arches breaks up the simple square mass into a rhythm of recessed panels and frames around narrow windows (Discover Islamic Art, n.d.)
The crown of the tower combines a crenellated parapet, a small lantern tower, and the triple metal top known as the jamūr. Three golden spheres are stacked on a vertical rod, a familiar motif on Moroccan minarets. Together with the tiles and small openings, these details add life to the minaret while its overall volume remains a simple, unbroken square shaft (Discover Islamic Art, n.d.)
Inside a Hypostyle Prayer Hall
Inside a Hypostyle Prayer Hall
Historical descriptions and comparative Almohad buildings make it possible to reconstruct the layout of Koutoubia’s interior. South of the courtyard stretches a large hypostyle prayer hall divided by more than one hundred columns into parallel aisles. These aisles run perpendicular to the qibla wall and organize worshippers into long rows during communal prayer (Discover Islamic Art, n.d., Koutoubia Mosque - History and Architecture, 2018). The plan follows what historians describe as a T-shaped layout. A wide transverse nave runs along the qibla wall, while a wider central aisle cuts across the hall from the main northern entrance toward the mihrab. These two axes—the qibla aisle and the central nave—are treated as more spacious and more elaborately vaulted than the side aisles. The same T-shaped emphasis appears in other mosques built under ʿAbd al-Muʾmin at Taza and Tinmal, so learning to recognize it at Koutoubia clarifies a broader Almohad design language (Archnet, n.d., Discover Islamic Art, n.d.).
Photographs of Almohad-style hypostyle halls show repetitive rows of plastered horseshoe arches, white or pale walls, and floors covered with simple carpets or matting. Light filters in from clerestory openings or from doors along the courtyard, creating alternating bands of light and shadow across the arcades. Architectural historians see this measured, repetitive interior as an expression of Almohad preference for ordered, regular spaces rather than highly overloaded surfaces (Majidi & Mhammedi, 2025). A particularly important part of the interior is the maqsura zone in front of the mihrab, reserved historically for the ruler and his entourage. In this area the ceilings and domes become more complex and the decoration denser, signaling that this part of the hall has a different status from the rest (Archnet, n.d. ).
Muqarnic Geometry
Muqarnic Geometry
Muqarnas Cupola
The green-tinted image and the embedded 3D model both represent a muqarnas cupola from Koutoubia. This dome belongs to the transverse nave along the qibla wall and sits in front of the mihrab, at the crossing of the wide central aisle and the qibla axis (Discover Islamic Art, n.d.). Muqarnas is a three-dimensional form of ornament constructed from many small stepped niche-like elements. Seen from below, it resembles a honeycomb or a cluster of stalactites carved in plaster and wood. At Koutoubia, muqarnas is used to transform a square bay into an octagon and then into the shallow dome that hangs above the maqsura. The 3D model makes the geometry easier to read by revealing how the individual cells interlock and how light catches the sharp edges of each tier (Almenara Blanca, 2020). Studies of the mosque’s domes note that the transverse nave along the qibla wall includes several special vaults. Some bays use ribbed domes, while the bay in front of the mihrab carries the elaborate muqarnas canopy shown in the images. Concentrating this kind of complex geometry above the ruler’s space and the mihrab focuses attention on the sermon and prayer that took place beneath it (Alkadi, 2018).
A 3D model of the Cupola that can be moved and zoomed into
Click the play button to manipulate a 3D model of the Cupola
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