Qualla: Hassan Tower

Hassan Tower: Introduction

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Amine Lamuadani, CC BY-SA 4.0. The muezzin was supposed to ride a horse to the top. That is how tall the Hassan Tower was meant to be -- so high that instead of stairs, the builders installed ramps spiraling upward through six floors, each centered on a vaulted chamber lit by horseshoe-shaped windows. The tower was intended to reach at least 64 meters, possibly 80, which would have made it the tallest minaret in the world. When Almohad caliph Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur died in 1199, construction stopped at 44 meters. It has stayed there ever since.

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Image: Amine Lamuadani | CC BY-SA 4.0

Hassan Tower: A Caliph's Ambition in Red Sandstone

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Elgaard, CC BY-SA 4.0. Construction began around 1191, commissioned by al-Mansur, the third caliph of the Almohad Caliphate, whose empire stretched from Spain to Tunisia. The tower was designed as the minaret for a mosque that, if completed, would have surpassed the Great Mosque of Cordoba as the large...

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Image: Elgaard | CC BY-SA 4.0

Hassan Tower: Three Minarets, One Vision

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Hassan Tower was the third in a trio of monumental minarets commissioned by the Almohad caliphs. It was modeled on the minaret of the Koutoubia Mosque in Marrakesh, and it shares its architectural DNA with the Giralda of Seville. All three towers have square floor plans in th...

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Image: Bernard Gagnon | CC BY-SA 3.0

Hassan Tower: The Mosque That Never Was

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit P. Hughes, CC BY 4.0. Around the base of the tower, 348 stone columns stand in rows like a petrified forest. These are the remnants of the mosque's hypostyle prayer hall, which was never roofed. The columns mark out what would have been a vast interior -- the floor plan suggests a building of enormous...

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Image: P. Hughes | CC BY 4.0

Hassan Tower: Standing at Forty-Four Meters

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dr Mary Gillham Archive Project, CC BY 2.0. The Hassan Tower measures 16 meters on each side and rises to its unfinished height of 44 meters. At its full intended scale, it would have been slightly taller than the original Giralda in Seville. The tower's six interior floors, each with a ramp wide enough for a horse, were d...

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Image: Dr Mary Gillham Archive Project | CC BY 2.0