Half minaret
A sliced tower.
Riad Salih — CC BY 4.0 · Jawed ZENNAKI — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Sanaa Benyakoub — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Kamila ould larbi — CC BY-SA 4.0
The ruins of a fortified city built by the Marinid sultan Abu Yaqub Yusuf west of Tlemcen in the early fourteenth century, as camp and town during his long siege of the city, which lasted years; its best-known survivor is the towering minaret of the great mosque. The stone minaret stands alone like half a tower sliced lengthwise, nearly forty metres high, its facade decorated with lobed arches, stone lattice and a great gateway at its foot, counted among the finest surviving Marinid minarets in the Islamic Maghreb. Around the minaret are the remains of the great mosque's walls and the long ramparts of the old city with their towers, stretching among fields and olive trees, a scene that tells the story of the struggle between the Zayyanids and Marinids for Tlemcen. The site is open and free to view, a few minutes by car from the city centre. Just before sunset, when the stone turns golden, is the best time.
A sliced tower.
Among olives.
Golden stone.
Mansourah, west of Tlemcen
The Marinids built it as camp and town during their long siege of Tlemcen in the early fourteenth century.