Tbilisi's Central Mosque

The Arab conquest of Tbilisi in the eighteenth century entailed the settlement of the Muslim population in the city, which increased the need for a large mosque, and the Tbilisi Central Mosque was built to meet this need. The mosque was built on the site of a Shiite mosque that had existed in the city since the sixteenth century. The mosque building has a magnificent eight-cornered minaret. The mosque was built of bricks in the traditional Georgian style, and is currently used as a chapel for Sunni and Shiite Muslims.