Hassan Tower or Tour
Hassan is the minaret of an incomplete mosque in Rabat,
Morocco. Begun in 1195, the tower was intended to be the
largest minaret in the world along with the mosque, also
intended to be the world's largest. In 1199, sultan
Yacoub al-Mansour died, and construction on the mosque
stopped. The tower only reached 140ft(44m), about half
of its intended 260ft(86m) height. The rest of the
mosque was also left incomplete, with only the
beginnings of several walls and 200 columns being
contructed.
Instead of stairs, the tower is ascended by ramps. The
minaret's ramps would have allowed the muezzin to ride a
horse to the top of the tower to issue the call to
prayer.
Yacoub al-Mansour was a member of the Almohad Dynasty, a
berber, muslim empire in West Africa and Spain. The
tower, according to tradition, was designed by an
architect named Jabir who used similar a similar design
plan for Hassan's sister tower, the Giralda in Seville,
Spain. Both of the towers were modeled on the minaret of
another one of Jabir's designs, the Koutoubia Mosque in
Marrakesh. Renaissance Spaniards later added a western
style top to the Giralda, which was converted from a
minaret to a bell tower for the Seville Cathedral after
the Reconquista.
The tower, along with the remains of the mosque and the
modern Mausoleum of Mohammed V, forms the most important
historical and tourist complex in Rabat. |