Two kilometres south-west of Tlemcen, the ruins of Mansourah occupy a low rise outside the city walls. The most striking remnant is the minaret of the Great Mosque: a square brick tower forty metres high, carved with horseshoe-arched blind arcades and panels of geometric brickwork, and now split open by an earthquake at the top to reveal the staircase inside. The roofless prayer hall behind it, with two surviving rows of columns and the mihrab still in place, gives a vivid sense of the scale of the project.
The site is open without ticketing and can be reached by a short taxi ride or thirty-minute walk from the city centre. There is no shade. Late afternoon is best for the light on the minaret. Combine with a stop at the nearby tomb of Lalla Setti for a fine view across to the medina.