The story of Koutoubia Mosque

Its name means the Booksellers' Mosque: at one time as many as 100 book vendors worked in the streets at its foot. The minaret, 77 metres tall, is a symbol of Marrakesh, and it likely inspired the Giralda of Seville and the Hassan Tower of Rabat. The story begins with conquest.

In 1147 the Almohad leader Abd al-Mu'min took the city from the Almoravids and founded a mosque here, next to the old Almoravid fortress, the Ksar al-Hajjar. Around 1158 he had it entirely rebuilt, and that second mosque is the one standing today; Ya'qub al-Mansur possibly completed the minaret around 1195. On the esplanade you can still see the ruins of the first mosque. The Almohads argued that Almoravid mosques faced the wrong direction for prayer, preferring an older, more southerly tradition.

In 1157 a celebrated copy of the Quran attributed to Caliph Uthman was brought here from Cordoba. Nearby, a small white dome shelters the tomb of Lalla Zohra, a female mystic.