There were no Minarets in the Prophet’s Mosque during the periods of the Prophet (Pbuh) and his four Caliphs. K. A. C. Creswell, the leading British scholar of Muslim architecture, readily be considered the doyen of the first generation of professional scholars of Islamic architecture, has observed that "in the time of Muhammad no such thing as a minaret was known." He dates the first minarets found at Damascus, from 673 A.D., 41 years after the death of prophet Muhammad (pbuh). It should be noted that the call to prayer can be carried in the streets or from the roof of the Mosque (Masjid, meaning "the place of prostration"), and that Mosques in villages and outlying places rarely had Minarets.

Scholars narrated that there was a column in the house of Abdullah ibn Omar where the Athan was called from the top of this column. This column was existing till 10th century Hijri (Hijri - Islamic Calendar started in 622 AD - Hijrah means "journey"). Hence, the scholars recommend it so that the Athan (Athan) can be heard from as far as possible.

In 703 (91Hijri), Omar ibn Abdulazziz built four minarets on the four corners of the Prophet’s Mosque for this very reason - each Minaret was about 9 meter high (30 feet) and with a base of 16 meters (52 feet) - The Muazzin (person calling for prayer) was able to call for prayer from a top of the Minarat.

In more recent times, the Athan is called out in the Musallah (prayer hall), via audio and video systems, and in turn the role of the Minaret became largely for traditional and decorative purposes. The world's tallest Minaret today stands at 210 meters (630 feet) high and can be seen in the magnificent "Hassan II" Mosque in Casablanca, Morocco - the Mosque was built for the 60th birthday of former Moroccan king Hassan II, is the largest religious monument in the world after Mecca - it has space for 25,000 worshippers inside and another 80,000 outside. The 210-meter high Minaret is visible day and night for miles around - it's design closely resembles that of Kutubiya Mosque Minaret, built in 1195, and stands at 77 meters (230 feet) high in Marrakech, Morocco.
 

Firuzkuh the capital of the Ghurids empire, later destroyed by the Mongols, contained a great mosque from which all that remains is the Tower of Jam, dated 1194, discovered in 1957. The Tower is the most striking of the group of some seventy towers erected in Iran, Afghanistan, and Central Asia between the 11th and the 13th centuries. It served as a victory memorial as well as a Minaret standing at 60 meter (200 feet) high from the base of a remote mountain valley in central Afghanistan. A brick structure with an octagonal shaft laid out in panels connected by interlacing ribbons of inscriptions. The lower shaft contains all of the "Surat Maryam" of the Quran using the Kufic style script, made entirely out of carefully cut and assembled brick encircling the entire structure, as well as the name and titles of the Ghurids ruler "Ghaiyath Al-Din Muhammad 1163-1203" are executed in blue glazed ceramic.

Today the Minarets are distinctive architectural features of any Mosque, they are generally tall, graceful spires, with rod-shaped or concave crown affixed to the roof of the Minaret, usually either free standing or much taller than any surrounding support structure - it's almost hard to find new developed Mosque today that wont include a Minaret.
 

Ottoman Minaret	Minaret of the Great Mosque of Qairawan	Minaret of Taj Mahal	Spiral Minaret of Al Mutawakil Mosque	Minaret of the Great Mosque in Seville	Yemeni Minaret