Jameh Mosque of Yazd

🕰️When was it built?

The domed chamber dates from the Ilkhanid period, and the tall portal is attributed to the reign of the Timurid Shahrokh. Building and alterations continued in later periods, and in the Qajar era three adjoining mosques were joined into one complex around a single large courtyard.

🏛️What was it built for?

The mosque served the city for prayer and religious life. It has a courtyard, side arcades, an iwan, a domed chamber, prayer halls on both sides and a large hall of columns. Seven entrances connect the complex to the lanes around it.

👀What you will see

• The two minarets beside the portal are about fifty-two metres tall and rise above the main entrance.
• The inscriptions include brick Kufic and white Thuluth script on lapis-blue tiles.
• The portal inscription names Shahrokh and Sultan Jahanshah, with the date 861 AH (1456–57).
• The dome has two shells: the inner one shapes the chamber below, the outer one the building's outline.
• The continuous vaults of the prayer halls carry tile mosaic, and the mihrab and main iwan are tiled too.

💡Something interesting

Some of the light inside the mosque does not come straight from the sun. It bounces off the white plaster of the upper windows of the dome and the walls before reaching the interior, so the shape of the windows and the pale walls play a part in lighting the building.

🎒Good to know before you go