Great Mosque of Kairouan Tunisia

Founded in the seventh century by Uqba ibn Nafi and rebuilt in the ninth, the mosque at Kairouan is the oldest Muslim place of worship in the Maghreb and the model from which much of North African religious architecture descends. Its character is unmistakable: a squat square minaret climbing in three tapering tiers, a vast walled courtyard, and a hypostyle prayer hall carried on ranks of reused Roman columns beneath a ribbed dome. Rendered as an architectural model, the building keeps its fortress-like quality, blank buttressed outer walls doing the work that ornament does elsewhere, with the arcades and the stepped tower providing the detail. It suits collectors of world-heritage landmarks, students of Islamic architecture, classroom and museum display, and diorama builders assembling a North African scene. Historic architecture in miniature, and a subject far less printed than the usual European cathedrals.