2-667-208 - Historic England Archive/Heritage Images

Samarra, Iraq. Once the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate in the 9th century. The famous spiral minaret of the Great Mosque of Samarra was built in 847 by Caliph al-Mutawakkil. The city went into rapid decline after the collapse of the Abbasid empire, but remains a place of pilgrimage for Muslims.