Vakil Mosque

The Vakil Mosque in Shiraz features a massive courtyard flanked by forty-eight carved stone pillars with spiraling shafts. Karim Khan Zand ordered the mosque built in the mid-eighteenth century to serve the royal district of his capital. During the construction, architects faced a challenge with the soil, which was too soft to support the original height of the intended dome. They flattened the roof, creating the distinctive hypostyle hall that allows light to filter across the intricate floral tiles covering the walls.