Koutoubia Mosque

In front of you rises the most recognisable building in Marrakech. No structure in the medina may be taller, and from almost any rooftop in the old city you'll use this tower to get your bearings.

1Two mosques in one

In 1147 the Almohad caliph Abd al-Mu'min took Marrakech from the Almoravids, and that same year he began building a great mosque here. Around 1158 he ordered a second one, built right against the first, and that is the mosque you see today. The minaret was finished in the late 12th century, probably under his grandson Ya'qub al-Mansur, the same caliph behind the Giralda in Seville and the Hassan Tower in Rabat. That's why the Koutoubia and the Giralda look so alike: they were built by the same dynasty in the same era.

2A tower you could ride up

The minaret is about 77 metres tall to the tip of its finial. Inside there are no stairs, just a broad ramp which, the story goes, allowed the muezzin to ride to the top on horseback. The four faces are not identical: each has its own arrangement of arches and latticework.

The name comes from kutubiyyin, 'booksellers': at one time around a hundred book stalls crowded the foot of the mosque. The earthquake of 8 September 2023 cracked the minaret; the mosque reopened in March 2024.

3What to look for

• The band of green and turquoise tiles below the lantern: it is all that survives of a ceramic facing that has gradually been lost.
• The panels on each face, with different designs depending on the side.
• The pillar bases to the northwest: remains of the first mosque, excavated from 1923 onwards.