Koutoubia Mosque
Jamaa al-KutubiyyaKoutoubia Mosque, Marrakech: the 77-metre Almohad minaret, the gardens around it, and what visitors can and cannot see.
The Koutoubia is Marrakech's great mosque, a few minutes west of Jemaa el-Fna. Its minaret, 77 metres tall, is the landmark you steer by in the medina.
The Almohad caliph Abd al-Mu'min founded a first mosque here in 1147 and rebuilt it around 1158. The minaret was probably finished under Ya'qub al-Mansur around 1195. The name comes from kutubiyyin, the booksellers who once traded nearby.
Look up at the carved stone panels on the minaret, then at the ruins of the first mosque, laid out on the esplanade beside it. The gardens to the west and south, with a rose garden, are free to walk through.
It is a working mosque and non-Muslims cannot go inside. Most visitors see it in twenty minutes from the gardens.
Good to know
- Non-Muslims may not enter the mosque; stay respectful near the doors at prayer times.
- The mosque's 12th-century minbar is on display at El Badi Palace.
- The gardens have benches and shade.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org, visitmorocco.com