About
The Great Mosque of Tlemcen is one of three mosques built by the Almoravids in Algeria: the Algiers Mosque and the Nedrouma Mosque. The Great Mosque of Tlemcen, like other Almoravid mosques, is organized in a design that uses tiles perpendicular to the qibla wall, and a rectangular courtyard, surrounded by arcades on the two small sides. It represents the first Maghreb model of religious architecture. The original plan (which did not include the two new porticoes in front of the minaret) was a rectangle, cut into a triangular area in its northwestern part. The total length is approximately 55 meters, and its width is slightly less than this measurement.
The construction of the mosque dates back to the year 530 AH, corresponding to 1136 AD, by the Almoravid leader “Youssef bin Tashfin,” the first caliph of the Almoravid state, then his successor “Ali bin Yusuf bin Tashfin” came. Who added to the mosque its current decorations, expanded it, and restored it.
The ancient mosque in Tlemcen was built of stones, bricks, and plaster. The designers relied on marble, carved plaster, ceramics, wood, and tile for decoration. It contains 8 doors and a large prayer hall. The length of the mosque is about 60.45 meters and its width is 30.49 metres, while the length of its courtyard is 27 meters and its width is 15 metres. Its height is 26.15 metres. Its design is irregular at the level of the northwestern wall due to the topography of the site. On the northern side, in a place relatively inclined to the axis of the mihrab, rises the minaret built by Yaghmurasen in the year 1236. It is square in shape and topped with a skylight. The courtyard opens into the prayer hall. It has a square and oblique design and is surrounded by porticoes on three sides, some of which form an extension of the thirteen prayer hall naves parallel to the qibla wall, which are divided into six bays.
The prayer hall was divided into thirteen naves, seven of which form an extension of the prayer hall naves. Prayer, and it frames the plate on two sides (four on one side and three on the other). Above the entrance is a “dam”.