Samsun Atakum Grand Mosque — Double-Şerefe Minaret Construction

Atakum Grand Mosque sits on the Samsun coastline and reads on the city skyline. Because the mosque was designed with two minarets, the pair had to be identical: the same taper, the same flute pitch, the same şerefe level. That is a constraint which directly sets the tolerance of the formwork.

We cast the shafts in situ with modular formwork of our own manufacture. The fluted surface was not ground on site — it came off the formwork face, so no visible difference arose between the two minarets.

How the work progressed on site

The minaret rose from the bottom up in five stages. At each stage the formwork was struck and moved to the module above; the timber scaffold grew with the minaret.

• Base and transition block — the chamfered block taking the square section into a circle was cast in place, motifs and all.
• Shaft — raised stage by stage with the fluted formwork modules, with the taper checked at every module.
• Şerefe — a special şerefe form was set up for the muqarnas ring and the balustrade openings.
• Second şerefe — the same formwork arrangement was repeated above the first.
• Upper shaft, cap and finial — the work closed with the conical finish and the fitting of the finial.

What a second şerefe changes

A second şerefe does more than make the minaret taller. Because each one creates a discontinuity in the shaft section, the reinforcement is closer-spaced in those zones, and because the total height increases, the wind load and seismic calculations are redone. On the formwork side the muqarnas ring is built twice, which extends both the scaffolding and the labour.

The finished minarets

With their white fluted shafts, gold-leaf bands and two muqarnas şerefe, the minarets are now part of the Atakum skyline. The drone footage shows the proportion of the pair at city scale and the alignment of the şerefe levels.