The most prominent monuments in Samarra are the Jameh Mosque and the famous Twisted Minaret, which has a unique shape in the Arab and Islamic architecture. This mosque was built by the Caliph Al-Mutawakkil Ala Allah in the year 235 AH / 850 AD and is considered the largest mosque in the Islamic world, with an area of 38,000 square meters and a capacity of about 80,000 worshipers. It is rectangular in shape with dimensions (240 m 158 m) and the height of its existing external walls is currently ten meters and has 23 doors. It opened on its four sides and has a wide courtyard in the middle of it a water fountain for ablution and it was called Pharaoh’s Spot. It is indicated that this basin was originally from the Egyptian side and was made by the Pharaohs, and from here came its relation to Pharaoh. Hosfield named it (Pharaoh’s Cup), and is now displayed in the Abbasid Palace in Baghdad.
The water was brought to this fountain by the Kahriz. However, the Kahriz is an underground tunnel in the form of a water stream for drawing groundwater from the springs and transporting it. In the middle of the Qibla wall is a large rectangular mihrab on both ends of which are columns bearing pointed arches. The mosque’s most prominent attachment is the minaret that is identified at a height of 52 m and at a distance of 27 m from the northern side of the mosque. It is based on a square base with a side length of 32 meters, above which a spiral ascent begins, around which it revolves five rounds counterclockwise, and ends with a cylindrical top with a small dome above it. Since 1200 years ago, there were no loudspeakers, so the muezzin climbed to the minaret so that everyone could hear the call to prayer.
