The Hunchedback (Al Hadba'a) of Mosul,Iraq.

Al Hadba’a Minarete (The Hunchback) Mosul ,Iraq.

An endangered marvel of the old world yet with no any attempt to save.

Built by Seljuk ruler Nur al-Din al-Zangi Atabeg in 1172.

The oldest and tallest minaret in the Islamic world for more than an

eight hundred years,unfortunately it is only famous in Iraq.

Height 53m from the ground,it stand on 10*10m square base,the

cylindrical diameter is 5.53 at the base and 3.8m at the upper part.

It consist of two walls ,the outer one is 0.92m thickness at the base

and 0.8m thickness at the upper part,and the inner central solid core

with a diameter of 1.9m at the base ,and of 0.75m at the upper

part,the outer wall is connected with the solid core inner wall with a

two completely separated helical ladders ,the two helical ladders meet

only at the upper part of the minaret,the user of one of them can not

see the other one at any part of its all height.The minaret has two

separate entrances.

The minaret is built from calcium carbonate stones and calcium

carbonate cement ,and it was decorated from its outside by decoration

bricks.

Its cylindrical part is decorated with seven zones of completely

different decorations,each zone is separated from the the other zone

by a narrow eight tapes of another minute different decorations.

The minaret is leaning and curved toward the east by 2.19m ,the first

trial to save this old unique minaret was at 1981 by the Fondial

reconstruction of Italy,the same company that reconstructed Pisa tower

of Rome,At 1998 the leaning have become 2.5m,with 0.31m increase than

the 1981 when the Italian have finished their restorations,and there

is a crack 1.5 length on the concrete wall built by the Italian on the

ground to support the minaret.

After occupation of Iraq it was completely neglected ,There is a link

to its saving attempt by The World Monument Fund

The image was shot three days ago,and I have included the

more than fifty years old Washingtonian palm to give a hint of its height.

Please view larger ,and pray for Iraq.

Falling? No, it comes from the camera -the tree seems to be falling also (falling always inward). The persective distortion can be minimized by taking  the photo from a far distance with a long lens. Large format cameras with shift, tilt, rotate, swing features eliminate perspective distortion -as used in professional architectural photography.  Always dreamed of owning and using one of these.

Thank you for the explanation.

A very nicely composed beautiful shot, Saad!

With best regards,

Ruud.