Great Mosque of Kairouan

The Great Mosque of Kairouan, also called the Mosque of Uqba, was founded in 670 by Uqba ibn Nafi, the Arab general who established Kairouan. Its present form dates mainly from the 9th-century Aghlabid rebuilding. Behind fortress-like walls lies a vast marble-paved courtyard sloping towards a central drain that feeds underground cisterns. The massive square minaret, three storeys high, is one of the oldest standing minarets in the world. The prayer hall is a forest of reused Roman and Byzantine columns. Non-Muslim visitors can enter the courtyard and look into the prayer hall from its doors.