Gallery
Description
Property Name: Timur Qutlugh Minaret
Inventory No: 993-322-3
Date of infill of the inventory form: 2009-08-17
Country (State party): Turkmenistan
Province: Dashoguz
Town: Kunya-Urgench
Geographic coordinates: 42° 18′ 31.33″ N
59° 8′ 30.91″ E
Historic Period: 14th century, 1st half
Year of Construction: 1321-1330
Style: Mongol
Original Use: Minaret
Current Use: Minaret, Touristic
Architect: Unknown.
Significance
Qutlugh Timur Minaret, is the remain of Kunya Urgench’s Friday Mosque. It was built by the Khorezmian governor Qutlugh Timur (1321-1333) in the 14th century. Despite the earthquakes and fires in the region, the minaret is standing still. It is the tallest medieval minaret in Central Asia.
Selection Criteria
ii. to exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design
iii. to bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared
State of Preservation
Much of the brickwork is weathered badly. In the late 1980s, the base of the minaret is restored. The brickwork is cleaned and the staircase of the mosque is repaired. In 1999, the top of the minaret was reinforced partially. Today, the minaret leans through the northwest. The door of the minaret and restored parts
References
Prochazka, Amdjad Bohumil, Khawarizm: an unknown civilization between the Caspian and the Aral Sea, Muslim Architecture Research Program, Jeddah, 1990.
Sayan, Yüksel. Türkmenistan’daki mimari eserler: XI-XVI. Yüzyıl, Kültür Bakanlığı, Ankara, 1999.
Rossi-Osmida, Gabriele. Turkmenistan Environment, History, Monuments, Etnography and the Aral Sea, Centro Studi Ricerche Ligabue, Rome, Turkmenistan 1996
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