style of spiraling minaret was then repeated by the caliph Abu Dulaf for his mosque (also in Samarra). These minarets become a focal point of the skyline in any city and are a call to attention and prayer. In 2005 the top of the Malwiyyah minaret was bombed. US forces in their invasion of the country used the minaret as a sniper tower before it was destroyed. Structures The minaret's spiral shape inspired Pritzker Architecture Prize winner Philip Johnson's design for the 1976 Chapel of Thanksgiving at Thanks-Giving Square in Dallas, Texas, in the United States. The minarets of a prominent Emirati mosque, that of Sheikh Khalifa in Al Ain, have been also been inspired by this minaret. The influence of the minaret and courtyard of the mosque is seen in these places, as well as in modern mosques. Gallery See also Firuzabad, Fars Chogha Zanbil The Wonderful Barn References External links The Great Mosque, Samarra, Iraq Photo of The Great Mosque Photo and information Photos, floor plans, and information Ernst Herzfeld Papers, Series 7: Records of Samarra Expeditions, Great Mosque of al-Mutawakkil Collections Search Center, S.I.R.I.S., Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Ernst Herzfeld Papers, Series 7: Records of Samarra Expeditions, 1906-1945 Smithsonian Institution, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, Washington, DC 9th-century mosques Great Samarra Abbasid architecture Great Mosque World Heritage Sites in Iraq Islamic antiquities