Jameh Mosque of Isfahan

Located in the historic center of Isfahan, the Masjed e Jāmé (‘Friday mosque’) is the oldest Friday (congregational) mosque in Iran can be seen as a stunning illustration of the evolution of mosque architecture over twelve centuries, starting in ad 841. It is a prototype for later mosque designs throughout Central Asia. The complex, covering more than 20,000 m2, is also the first Islamic building that adapted the four courtyard layout of Sassanid palaces to Islamic religious architecture. Its double shelled ribbed domes represent an architectural innovation that inspired builders throughout the region. The monument illustrates a sequence of architectural construction and decorative styles of different periods in Iranian Islamic architecture, covering 12 centuries, most predominantly the Abbasid, Buyid, Seljuq, Ilkhanid, Muzzafarid, Timurid and Safavid eras. Following its Seljuq expansion and the characteristic introduction of the four iwans around the courtyard as well as two extraordinary domes, the mosque became the prototype of a distinctive Islamic architectural style.