The smaller northern prayer hall dates to the first phase of construction and was built in the 11th or 12th century.

It contained a total of 16 bays, supported by nine pillars, originally carved from coral but later replaced by timber.

In the early fourteenth century, Sultan al-Hasan ibn Sulaiman, who also built the nearby Palace of Husuni Kubwa, added a southern extension which included a great dome.

Ibn Battuta's descriptions were not entirely accurate though, claiming that the mosque was completely made of wood, while stone walls were found to predate the fourteenth century.

[1] Residing on the coast of East Africa, the Great Mosque was one of the many structures in Kilwa that was built in a fairly common fashion of its time.

The outside veneer of the qibla divider is strengthened by a 30 cm wide brace that finishes the establishment.

All that remains of the northern part are walls whose establishments are made out of a genuinely standard mechanical assembly, quadrangular rubble in coral limestone.

This southern extension of the mosque was traditionally built, having square bays divided by a space in between, leaving no central court.

In the fourteenth century, traces of the octagonal pillars were thought to have been built from previous traditional columns.

Because all of the coins were under the same name, it is the most convincing confirmation that there is in order to identify the earliest form of a first ruler in Kilwa.

[10] Between 2005 and 2009, the Zamani Project documented some of the Swahili ruins on Kilwa Kisiwani with terrestrial 3D laser scanning.