Minaret facts for kids

The mosque in Aswan, Egypt with its two minarets

A muezzin calling to prayer, painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme

A minaret is a tower. Many mosques have minarets. Muezzins to call Muslims to prayers from minarets five times a day.

Images for kids

Minaret at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus
An orientalist depiction of the muezzin's call to prayer from the balcony of a minaret, 1878. Usually only one muezzin chants the azan from the balcony, back straight and not leaning on the railing.
Kalyan Minaret (left) in Bukhara (1127)
One of the minarets of the Taj Mahal in Agra (1643)
Minaret of the al-Maridani Mosque (1340), the earliest example of a style repeated in later Mamluk minarets
Minaret of the Kutubiyya Mosque in Marrakesh (second half of 12th century)
The Selimiye Mosque in Edirne (1574), which features the four tallest Ottoman minarets
Inside the stairway of a minaret in Mostar
Inside the Giralda minaret in Seville, which has ascending ramps instead of stairs
An ornate balcony at the Qutb Minar in Delhi
Example of a lantern structure at the top of a minaret at the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore
Example of a metal finial in Istanbul