TEHRAN -- A joint team of Iranian and German archaeologists is currently studying the Golpayegan Grand Mosque in the city of Golpayegan, northwestern Isfahan Province.

According to the mosque’s inscription written in 1114 CE, it was built under the sponsorship of Mohammad Abu Nasr Ebrahim ibn Mohammad by architect Abi Omar ibn Mohammad Qazvini during the reign of Mohammad ibn Malek Shah (circa 1104-1118), a Seljuk king.
The naves adjacent to the main hall and the building in the east and west of the monument were added to the mosque under Fat’hali Shah, a Qajar king.
Experts from the Archaeological Research Center of Iran (ARCI) and Iran’s Research Center for Monuments and Historical Sites (RCMHS) and the University of Bamberg are participating in the study project, Iranian director of the team Kazem Arab told the Persian service of CHN on Tuesday.
The project aims to shed light on the unknown parts of the mosque’s architecture, he added.
The team has excavated four trenches at the mosque and they have found signs of pre-Seljuk structures, however they are not certain about them.
Six coins dating back to the Ilkhanid period and a large number of shards from various Islamic periods have been discovered during the excavations.
“The trenches will be refilled scientifically and the mosque will be partially restored after the research project ends,” Arab noted.
This is the second time the mosque is being studied by a joint team of Iranian and German experts. A joint team led by Iranian expert Zarrintaj Sheibani and Professor Lorenz Korn of the University of Bamberg studied the monument in 2006.
Photo: The ceiling of a dome has been embellished with brickwork at one of the entrances of the Golpayegan Grand Mosque. (Mehr/Heidar Rezaii)