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panorama

This is how you look down from the top of the spiral minaret. The mosque is no longer in use, the courtyard is empty, only the outer walls and minaret remained times.

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the spiral minaret

This minaret is world famous for it's extraordinary form. The helicoidal staircase principle is derived from the old Mesopotamian "Zikkurat" - the socalled temple towers. The Zikkurat existed in different styles. Only one certain example of the same typoe than the minaret has been found - the Zikkurat of Khorsabad, excavated in the late 19th century. Three storeys were found intact showing an almost identical fashion than the spiral minaret.

Even Herodotus' description of the temple tower for god Bel in Babylon shows the familarity: "there was a tower of solid masonry, a furlong in length and breadth, upon which was raised a second tower, and on that a third, and so on up to eight. The ascent to the top is on the outside, by a path which winds round all the towers". (translation Creswell)