The Monastir mosque is one of the most interesting and largest monuments in the region. It’s a really great place to visit and there is a lot of history surrounding this mosque.

The Great Mosque of Monastir is a historic mosque located in the outskirts of Monastir, Tunisia. Overlooking the sea, the mosque is characterized by exterior flat stone façades, frames surrounding the windows and doors, and arches extending along the Mihrab.

The present mosque, which has undergone enlargements and additions over the centuries, includes a prayer room and a minaret, and doesn’t have a courtyard inside. This has been the results from four distinct phases of construction. In the first phase dating from the 9th century, the hall was built covered with arched vaults and supported by the semi-circular arches resting on cruciform pillars. During the 11th century, an enlargement of the room to the south-east was accompanied by the addition of columns surmounted by arched vaults. It is from this period that the development of the mihrab begun. Decorated with Zirid-style motifs, the mihrab consists of a semicylindrical niche with a rib-shaped vault. It is decorated with Kufic inscriptions and floral mouldings. In the Hafsid era, expansion work continued with the construction of a square-based minaret and the addition of two naves in the north-western part. The completion of the mosque took place during the 18th century with the addition of a hallway along one of the exterior facades.

One of the peculiarities of the Great Mosque of Monastir lies in the fact that there is no dome surmounting the mihrab, which is rather rare in medieval Ifriqiyan architecture.