It is located in al-Jalloum district of the Ancient City of Aleppo, a World Heritage Site, near the entrance to Al-Madina Souq.

[9] The site of the Great Mosque was once the agora of the Hellenistic period, which later became the garden for the Cathedral of Saint Helena during the Christian era of Roman rule in Syria.

According to later traditions,[10][11] the construction of the earliest mosque on the site was commenced by the Umayyad caliph al-Walid I in 715 and was finished by his successor Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik in 717.

[13] At the northwest corner of the mosque, the 45-meter high minaret was built by the Shia Muslim qadi ("chief Islamic judge") of Aleppo, Abu'l Hasan Muhammad in 1090,[14] during the reign of Seljuk governor Aq Sunqur al-Hajib.

Carved Kufic and naskhi inscriptions decorated the entire minaret along with alternate bands of stylized ornaments in patterns and muqarnas.

[21] On the 24th of April, 2013, the minaret of the mosque was reduced to rubble during an exchange of heavy weapons fire between government forces and rebels during the ongoing Syrian civil war.

[9][21][22] Countering assertions by the state media of Jabhat al-Nusra's involvement, opposition sources described them as rebels from the Tawhid Brigades who were fighting government forces around the mosque.

[23] The opposition's main political bloc, the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), condemned the minaret's destruction, calling it "an indelible disgrace" and "a crime against human civilization".

The masonry of the minaret varied throughout, with a mix of light and heavy usage of toothed tools, short, long, vertical and horizontal strokes, fine and rough finishes, and small and large stones.

Meanwhile, anthropologist Yasser Tabbaa stated the mosque was a continuation of the ancient North Syrian churches and "an entirely localized phenomenon, centered mainly in the region between Aleppo and Edessa".

Similar to the Great Mosque of Damascus, a maqsurah was built in the form of a square domed room raised by one step above the floor level of the prayer hall, and adorned with Kashan tiles that cover all the internal surfaces of its walls.

A large arched gate supported by two robust columns and topped with capitals as well as a bronze door screen comprise the entranceways to the maqsurah.

[27] The museum's number of valuable objects, including a box purportedly containing a strand of the Prophet Muhammad's hair, were subject to looting during the Syrian War in the 2013 clash.