Koubba el-Baadiyn
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The Koubba el-Baadiyn or Koubba of the Almoravids is the only testimony to the rule of the Almoravids in their newly founded capital Marrakech in Morocco .
location
The Koubba is located in the old town ( medina ) of Marrakech opposite the entrance to the Ben Youssef mosque . The Medersa Ben Youssef and the Musée de Marrakech are in the immediate vicinity .
history
Marrakech was founded around 1070 by the Almoravid ruler Yusuf ibn Tashfin . The city was growing rapidly and the problem of drinking water supplies became more and more virulent. The Koubba was built in 1117 by order of the Sultan Ali ibn Yusuf ibn Tashfin (r. 1106–1143) as the center of a fountain system, which is now below ground level; it was also used for the ablution ( wudu ' ) prescribed by the Koran before prayer . Restored several times, it fell into oblivion at the end of the 19th century and when it was rediscovered in 1948 was covered by rubble that was cleared away during excavations in 1952.
architecture
The plastered brick structure, measuring just 5.40 × 7.30 m and almost 12 m high, has two floors and is open on all sides through differently arched entrances and windows; it has a crenellated wreath and is crowned by a dome with overlapping stucco ribs. Inside, the outer rectangle is transformed into a square. At the level of the upper end of the ground floor, an inner dome that appears to float and rests on eight pendentives detached from the ground and occupies the entire height of the upper floor.
The pendants are richly decorated with alternating vegetable stucco decor and shell shapes, the latter - not only in the oriental world - almost always related to water and vitality. Varying octagonal shapes surround the central and also octagonal rosette at the top of the dome. The ceiling of the upper floor, which is only visible in the corners, takes up the decor of the central dome on a reduced scale and in simplified forms.
literature
- Arnold Betten: Morocco. Antiquity, Berber Traditions and Islam - History, Art and Culture in the Maghreb. DuMont, Ostfildern 2012, ISBN 978-3-7701-3935-4 ,
pp. 275ff.
Web links
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 31 ° 37'53 " N , 7 ° 59'13.5" W.