Minaret of Khujand

Minaret of Khujand

The oldest minaret that is still standing is the one you see here close to the Mosque of Shaikh Muslihiddin, in North of Tajikistan, which was built for the same Mosque.

A minaret was a tower that Islamic holy men called muezzins climbed in order to call out the call to prayer, five times a day. At the top, there was an opening for the muezzin (moo-EZZ-in) to call out the prayers so everyone would know that it was time to pray. The oldest minaret that is still standing is the one you see here close to the Mosque of Shaikh Muslihiddin, in North of Tajikistan, which was built for the same Mosque.
For the first times, these were built with woods considering as watchtowers in 200 AD and later the inspiration allowed the architects to build them with the stone in 500 AD, which makes them last longer than ever before. A minaret was a tower that Islamic holy men called muezzins climbed in order to call out the call to prayer, five times a day. It was a tall thin building with stairs inside it (or sometimes outside) and small windows to let in daylight. At the top, there was an opening for the muezzin (moo-EZZ-in) to call out the prayers so everyone would know that it was time to pray.
Most minarets were near mosques, where men (though not women) came to pray. When the Almovarids ruled North Africa and Spain, they disapproved of minarets, and so people built mosques without minarets in those areas during the 1000s AD. But when the Almohads conquered the Almovarids, they built a lot of minarets to show that they had won.
 
secondsky