Grande Mosquee de Bobo-Dioulasso

Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso

The Great Mosque of Bobo-Dioulasso sits in the center of the city. Local reports attributed the construction of the mosque to between 1812 and 1832, while other scholars attributed its construction to the 1850s. It has since been enlarged and repaired.

The mosque is constructed of mud brick and is whitewashed. The construction makes use of projecting wooden beams (toron) and horizontally-oriented beams (yiri) to structural and aesthetic effect. The plan of the mosque takes the form of a rectangle with the longer sides on the north and south facades. Dominating the east facade is a large tower marking the mihrab and qibla. A second tower rises from the north facade and serves the purpose of a minaret. The exterior walls around the east end of the mosque feature large projecting buttresses spaced evenly along the facade. On the western end, the buttresses are smaller.

The interior of the mosque consists of an open court on the west end and a prayer hall on the east. The prayer hall consists of two sections built at different times. The old section is at the east end along the qibla, and consists of seven transverse aisles bordered on the west by the stairwell of the minaret tower and a long hallway. The old part of the prayer hall is supported by five rows of six thick, rectangular piers. Adjoining on the west end of the prayer hall is a structure containing two more transverse aisles built at a later date that opens through three doors onto the court. The court is partly covered by a tin roof, added in 1983.

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