3D print the Great Mosque of Samarra
A free, printable model of the Great Mosque of Samarra's spiral minaret and outer wall, with the open ground, roads and low buildings around it in Samarra, generated from real map data in your browser.
Free, in your browser. Exports a slicer-ready 3MF.
About the Great Mosque of Samarra
In Samarra, in Iraq's Saladin Governorate, stands what remains of the Great Mosque of Samarra, also called the Al-Malwiya Mosque, a former congregational mosque. Its outer wall and minaret are the parts that have been preserved. The Abbasid caliph Al-Mutawakkil commissioned it in 848 CE, and it was completed in 851. Its total area of 165,886 m2 and room for more than 60,000 worshippers made it the largest mosque in the world when it was built. The site is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Samarra Archaeological City, which was listed in 2007.
The minaret, called the Malwiya Tower, takes the form of a spiraling cone built of sandstone: 52 meters (171 ft) high and 33 meters (108 ft) wide at the base, with stairs spiraling to the top. It was built in 848–852, and a bridge originally linked it to the mosque. Its ascending spiral conical design is unique among minarets, and it can be seen from a considerable distance around Samarra. The spiral also inspired Philip Johnson, who designed the 1976 Chapel of Thanksgiving in Dallas, Texas.
The mosque had 17 aisles, with walls paneled in mosaics of dark blue glass. A baked brick outer wall, supported by forty-four semi-circular towers, enclosed a large rectangular courtyard surrounded by covered aisles, and sixteen doors gave access. In Cairo, Egypt, the Mosque of Ibn Tulun was modeled on the Samarra Mosque in many respects. Hulagu Khan's invasion of Iraq was followed by the mosque's destruction in 1258/1259 CE.
How it prints
Make this print opens the generator on a 700 m square around the landmark. Buildings print at close to true scale, so the landmark grows with the print size.
| Print size | Landmark height | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| 160 mm default | 12 mm | 1:4,375 |
| 200 mm | 15 mm | 1:3,500 |
| 256 mm | 20 mm | 1:2,734 |
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North
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East
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South
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West
- Spiral ramp on a cone
- The minaret's spiral ramp is a thin ledge winding up a tapering cone. Layers of 0.12 to 0.16 mm keep the ramp crisp, and printing slowly helps the narrow top.
- Long, thin outer wall
- The rectangular outer wall is a long, low ring with small round towers along it. A larger print size keeps the towers, and Print friendly adapts the thinnest parts to the print scale.
- One piece with the ground
- The Great Mosque of Samarra is joined to the ground in the exported file, and the four-side check found no floating parts, so nothing needs gluing.
- Pick the detail for your nozzle
- In the Buildings settings, set Landmark detail to Print friendly to adapt thin parts and small details to the print scale. Full detail keeps every modeled feature, for larger prints or a finer nozzle.
- Colors
- Buildings, roads, water and ground arrive as separate filament slots in the 3MF. The Great Mosque of Samarra takes the building color.
- File format
- You get a 3MF for Bambu Studio, OrcaSlicer or PrusaSlicer. Any of them can save it as STL if you need one.
About this model
The Great Mosque of Samarra is one of more than 2,300 landmark models in Mini Skyline. They are made with AI, and each one is checked from four sides in its real surroundings before release. Everything around it is built from OpenStreetMap and Overture map data. If you would rather print the shape from map data, turn off Landmark models in the Buildings settings.
Common questions
Is there a Great Mosque of Samarra STL I can download?
Mini Skyline builds the file for you in your browser and exports 3MF, which every major slicer opens. If you need an STL, open the 3MF in your slicer and export it from there.
How big can I print it?
Any print size from 40 mm across. The Great Mosque of Samarra grows with the print: about 12 mm tall on the default 160 mm print. For a model larger than your printer bed, Project Mode splits the area into tiles.
Is it free?
Yes. Generation runs in your browser, with no account and nothing behind a paywall.
