Uqba ibn Nafi founded the Great Mosque of Kairouan in 670, when he founded the city. It was destroyed around 690 and rebuilt in 703. Emir Ziyadat Allah I rebuilt it in 836, giving the building its present appearance, and around 862 and 863 Emir Abu Ibrahim enlarged the prayer hall by three bays and added a cupola over the portico. The style is Aghlabid, and the mosque covers over 9,000 square meters.
The minaret is 103 feet (31.5 m) high, in three tapering levels, with 129 steps. The article calls it the oldest minaret still standing in the Muslim world and a prototype for western Islamic minarets. The hypostyle prayer hall has 414 columns, many reused from Roman and Byzantine sites such as Carthage, and horseshoe arches.
The mihrab is surrounded by 139 lusterware tiles. The teak minbar, from about 862, is the oldest surviving minbar in the Muslim world. UNESCO listed Kairouan in 1988.
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