Mohammed Mosque and Siniq Gala Minaret

The Mohammed Mosque and its Siniq Gala minaret stand in the heart of Icheri Sheher, the walled Old City of Baku, Azerbaijan, close to the Palace of the Shirvanshahs. The minaret, whose name means 'broken fortress' or 'broken tower', is regarded as the oldest surviving building in Baku. An inscription on the structure records that it was built in 1078-1079 (AH 471) by the architect Mahammad ibn Abu Bakr, and that it was erected under the Seljuk-era rulers of the region, making it among the earliest dated Islamic monuments of Azerbaijan. The tower is a slender cylinder of local limestone that tapers slightly and ends in a lower section of the original shaft, since its upper part was reduced; the popular name is usually explained by damage from a cannonball during the Russian siege of Baku in 1806, though the tower may have been shortened by earlier events. The mosque itself was built beside the minaret in the 19th century, in the years after the bombardment, and the two are now visited as a single ensemble. The prayer hall is modest in scale, with simple arches, carpets and calligraphic decoration, which differs from the grandeur of royal buildings elsewhere in the quarter. It remains a place of worship, and the minaret was once part of a wider complex that included a school. Restoration of the tower and its surroundings took place during the Soviet era and in later conservation work within the Old City programme, which also supported the UNESCO inscription of the walled city in 2000. Architecturally, the Siniq Gala minaret illustrates the early Seljuk style in the Caspian region, with its stone masonry bands and the dedicatory inscription in Kufic script. There is no formal museum display; the monument is understood through the building itself and the signs outside. Visitors should dress modestly, remove shoes before entering and observe prayer times.