Friday Mosque (Masjid-i Jami)

One of the great mosques of the Islamic world, with 800 years of intact tilework

The Friday Mosque of Herat — Masjid-i Jami or Masjid-i Jami' Herat — is the masterpiece of the city and one of the most magnificent mosques in the Islamic world. The structure dates originally to the 12th century and was substantially rebuilt under the Timurids in the 15th century; what you see today is largely the product of that great age of Central Asian architecture.

The courtyard is enormous — one of the largest in Afghanistan — and surrounded on all four sides by deep-arched iwans covered in tilework of astonishing intricacy. The dominant colours are cobalt blue, turquoise, and white, worked into geometric and floral patterns that repeat and recombine across every surface. The mosaics in the main iwan are among the finest examples of the art form anywhere. Non-Muslims should ask permission to enter; the mosque is an active place of worship and dress modestly.

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The Friday Mosque of Herat has been continuously repaired and renovated since the 12th century — a project that never quite ends. Craftsmen working on the tilework in the 1970s and 1980s used techniques and materials essentially unchanged from those used in the Timurid era. The result is that the mosque is simultaneously 800 years old and perpetually being born again.