Jameh Mosque of Varamin

🕰️When was it built?

The present building was begun under Sultan Mohammad Khodabandeh and completed in 722 AH (1322–23), under Abu Sa'id. The mosque was restored in the 9th century AH (15th century CE) and has been excavated and rebuilt in modern times. It was registered as a national monument in 1931.

🏛️What was it built for?

It was built as the city's Friday mosque, with a courtyard, iwans, a prayer hall and arcades in a regular plan. The main entrance is on the north and the prayer hall on the south. Some parts, such as the west arcade, had been lost and were rebuilt during restoration.

👀What you will see

• The north portal is tall and slender, decorated with tile mosaic.
• The courtyard and four iwans sit in a roughly rectangular plan about 66 metres long and 43 metres wide.
• The domed chamber starts as a square room and, through corner squinches, becomes octagonal and then sixteen-sided.
• The dome and its chamber are decorated in brick and stucco, and the building material itself shows in the patterns.
• The east arcade has one row and a side way out; the west arcade has two rows of columns and no outer entrance.

💡Something interesting

Mohammad Karim Pirnia, the architectural historian, believed the dome originally had two shells and that the outer one has been lost. What survives today is the lower part of that structure.

🎒Good to know before you go