Jameh Mosque of Yazd

The Jameh Mosque, the Friday Mosque of Yazd, rises above the mud-brick lanes of the old city. Its tall entrance portal, faced with tile and flanked by two slender minarets, can be seen from many of the city's rooftops, among its windcatchers. It is the main congregational mosque of a city that the Silk Road, the desert and its own faith communities, Muslim and Zoroastrian, have shaped for many centuries.

A mosque stood here before the Mongol period, but little of the earlier building survives. The mosque we see largely dates from a rebuilding begun in the 1320s under the Ilkhanids, during the reign of Abu Sa'id, which gave it its portal, main iwan and domed sanctuary. The minarets are later additions, and at about 52 metres they are among the tallest in Iran, though sources differ on the exact height.

The tilework is the glory of the building. Inside the portal and the sanctuary, mosaic tiles in deep blue, turquoise and white form dense geometric stars and bands of inscription, and the dome chamber's mosaic mihrab is one of the finest of its period. In the cool of the sanctuary the light falls softly on the tiles, a contrast with the glare of the courtyard.

The mosque is part of the Historic City of Yazd, inscribed by UNESCO in 2017 as a living desert city of mud-brick houses, qanats and windcatchers. Visit in the early morning or at dusk, when the portal catches the light and the call to prayer carries over the rooftops.