Samarra
Sāmarrā (سامراء) is a town in Iraq.
It stands on the east bank of the Tigris in the province of Salah ad Din, 125 km north of Baghdad and, in 2002, had a population of some 201,700.
The town was one of the largest Mesopotamian cities of ancient times. Sites of interest include the Great Mosque with its unique spiral minaret, built in 847 when Samarra was, for a period of 56 years, the capital of the Muslim world.
It is also home to the mausoleums of the Ali al-Hadi and Hasan al-Askari, the tenth and eleventh Shia Imams, respectively, as well as the shrine of Muhammad al-Mahdi, known as the "Hidden Imam", who was the twelfth and final Imam of the Shia.
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