HERITAGE RECORD · 276

Samarra Archaeological City

萨迈拉古城

The official record, selection criteria and sourced cultural context.

World Heritage record

Samarra Archaeological City is the site of a powerful Islamic capital city that ruled over the provinces of the Abbasid Empire extending from Tunisia to Central Asia for a century. Located on both sides of the River Tigris 130 km north of Baghdad, the length of the site from north to south is 41.5 km; its width varying from 8 km to 4 km. It testifies to the architectural and artistic innovations that developed there and spread to the other regions of the Islamic world and beyond. The 9th-century Great Mosque and its spiral minaret are among the numerous remarkable architectural monuments of the site, 80% of which remain to be excavated.

Open the official UNESCO record ↗

Wikidata reference

QIDQ170047 ↗

Area150.58 ha

Administrative areaQ190131

WikipediaSamarra ↗

Chinese Wikipedia薩邁拉 ↗

Imported locally from Wikidata; it does not replace the UNESCO record or editorial copy.

Selection criteria

This property was inscribed under the following World Heritage Convention criteria.

(ii)An important interchange of human values in architecture, technology, arts, town planning or landscape design.

(iii)A unique or exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or civilisation.

(iv)An outstanding example of a building, ensemble or landscape illustrating a significant stage in human history.

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