Muqarnas

Muqarnas, mukarnas in Turkish, is a three-dimensional system of small niche or half-dome cells arranged in tiers, each row corbelled out over the one below. The result moves gradually from a flat surface to a curved or enclosed covering, which is why it reads from a distance as stalactites, honeycomb or hanging drops. It can be built in stone, stucco, brick or timber.

Muqarnas in Turkish architecture

In Seljuk and Ottoman buildings muqarnas appears in many places:

• The hooded niches of monumental portals,
• The upper part of mihrab niches,
• Column capitals, known as muqarnas capitals,
• Cornices and the underside of minaret balconies,
• Transition zones beneath domes.

It is not purely decorative. Because it can resolve the shift from a square bay to a circular or polygonal roof in stages, it can also be part of the structural logic. For the historical and artistic background, our article on art and architecture through history is a good place to start.

Surveying and modeling muqarnas

Muqarnas is among the hardest elements to measure by hand. The composition is built on a plan projection, with the cells of each tier sitting on a defined geometric grid. A survey therefore solves the projection first and then records the height of each tier. Laser scanning and photogrammetry capture the complex surface quickly, but a clean 3D model still means rebuilding the point cloud according to that cell logic. The same geometry guides the completion of missing or broken cells.