The Fatimid caliph Abdallah al-Mahdi began the Great Mosque of Mahdia in 916, the same year as his new palace city. It served as the city's main congregational mosque. The building measures roughly 246 by 180 feet (75 by 55 meters) and stands on an artificial platform described as reclaimed from the sea.
A monumental projecting north portal has a horseshoe arch and decorative niches, possibly inspired by Roman triumphal arches. The courtyard has arcades on all four sides, and the T-shaped prayer hall has nine aisles. The mosque originally had no minaret, and the two corner bastions were rainwater cisterns.
Sea erosion destroyed the original qibla wall in the eleventh century. After Charles V's forces captured Mahdia in 1550, the prayer hall was largely demolished. Alexandre Lézine renovated the mosque from 1961 to 1965, reconstructing it on the believed original Fatimid design.
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