Ben Youssef Mosque
Coordinates: 31°37′54.93″N 7°59′13.78″W / 31.6319250°N 7.9871611°W
The Ben Youssef Mosque (also known by its English spelling as the "Ibn Yusuf Mosque"), is a mosque in the medina quarter of Marrakesh, Morocco, named after the Almoravid emir Ali ibn Yusuf. It is arguably the oldest and most important mosque in Marrakesh.
The first mosque in Marrakesh was erected by the Almoravid emir Yusuf ibn Tashfin in the 1070s, to serve as the central congregational mosque of the fledgling city. It was one of the first brick buildings in the city, and Ibn Tashfin is said to have been personally engaged in mixing the mortar and laying of the bricks. His son and successor Ali ibn Yusuf ("Ben Youssef") built a grand new central mosque, named the Masjid al-Siqaya ("mosque of the fountain") on account of the large fountain with a marble basin in its courtyard. It cost nearly 60,000 gold dinars, and was completed sometime between 1121 and 1132. It was the largest mosque built in the Almoravid empire, with a rectangular base of 120 by 80 meters, and a minaret estimated to be thirty meters high. The rising city's layout was organized around it, and together with the neighboring souqs, it formed the center of early Marrakesh's city life. The nearby Koubba Ba'adiyn was one of the monumental ablution fountains connected to it.
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