Sousse - Great Mosque

Just inside the Medina in Sousse stands the fortress-like Great Mosque, built in 851, a few years after the re-foundation of the town by the Aghlabids, on the model of the Sidi Oqba Mosque in Kairouan. Following recent restoration work the exterior has recovered its original appearance.

The mosque originally had two defensive towers which in earlier centuries guarded the harbor. The domes of the minarets were later additions. An unusual feature is the external staircase leading up from the courtyard to the minaret. The battlemented walls of the courtyard, which is surrounded on three sides by a colonnade of tall horseshoe arches borne on massive piers, are decorated with an elaborate Kufic frieze. The arcade in front of the thirteen-aisled prayer hall was added in 1675. The prayer hall originally consisted only of three barrel-vaulted bays, but by the 10th century it was found to be too small and was extended by the addition of three rather higher groin-vaulted bays on the side with the qibla wall. The beautifully decorated Aghlabid dome, now over the fourth bay, was originally over the bay in front of the mihrab.