The Larabanga Mosque is built in the Sudanese architectural style in village of Larabanga, Ghana. The architectural style is also known as “flat-footed adobe architecture”. All the structures are given a white wash. The mosque is the oldest in all of Ghana, possibly in all of West Africa.
The mosque is located in the Islamic town of Larabanga, close to Damongo in the West Gonja District of the Savannah Region of Ghana. The town is situated about 15 kilometers north of Damongo, and 4 kilometers south of the Mole National Park entrance. It is believed that an Islamic trader called Ayuba, who was travelling through the area, built the mosque. According to one story, Ayuba slept in the area and had a dream in which he was instructed to build a mosque.
The seventeenth century structure is characterized by the use of horizontal timber, pyramidal towers, buttresses, and triangular perforations over entry portals. Larabanga Mosque is one of only eight mosques in the country built in this manner, and has long been a pilgrimage site for Ghana’s Muslim population and has been referred to as the “Mecca of West Africa”.
Larabanga Mosque was built primarily from packed earth, Larabanga is Ghana’s oldest mosque, and one of the country’s most revered religious sites. The northwest corner of the building features a minaret and a mihrab, a niche in the mosque wall at the point nearest to Mecca, toward which the congregation faces to pray.
The local community has also been supported in a handicraft and tourism project to generate funds not only for meeting the maintenance expenses of the mosque but also improve the economic conditions of the people.
Larabanga Mosque has undergone restoration several times since it was founded in 1421. The World Monuments Fund (WMF) has contributed substantially to its restoration, and lists it as one of the 100 Most Endangered Sites. The restoration works have revived the knowledge of adobe maintenance.
