The Malwiya of Samarra

For a few ninth-century decades Samarra ruled the Islamic world, its Abbasid caliphs building at a scale UNESCO still lists in superlatives - and the icon that survives is the Malwiya: the Great Mosque's minaret spiralling fifty-two metres in a continuous exterior ramp, a helix of baked brick unlike anything before or since, winding above the vast prayer-hall walls that once enclosed the world's largest mosque. Around it the caliphal city's ruins spread along the Tigris for kilometres - palace platforms, the Abu Dulaf mosque northward - archaeology at empire scale, visited with local guides.

The main sights

• The spiral ramp - the Malwiya's 52-metre helix.
• The Great Mosque walls - the vast 9th-century enclosure.
• The caliphal ruins - palace platforms along the Tigris.
• Abu Dulaf - the sister mosque's spiral minaret north.

When to go

October to April for workable temperatures; morning light shows the spiral ramp best. Access is arranged through local operators.

Things to know

On site: the ramp's climb status varies - confirm rather than assume; the brickwork deserves the respect its twelve centuries have earned.

Nearby

The Tigris towns and Baghdad's museums southward.