World’s Top Largest Mosques : Beautiful
19. Masjid Qubbat As-Sakhrah
The
site that includes the mosque (along with the Dome of the Rock) is
also referred to as al-Haram ash-Sharif or “Sacred Noble Sanctuary”, a
site also known
as the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, the place where the
First and Second Temples are generally accepted to have stood. Widely
considered as the third holiest site in Islam, Muslims believe that the
prophet Muhammad was transported from the Sacred Mosque in Mecca to
al-Aqsa during the Night Journey. Islamic
tradition holds that Muhammad led prayers towards this site until the
seventeenth month after the emigration, when God ordered him to turn
towards the Ka’aba. Al-Aqsa is comes as twentieth largest mosque of the
world. A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. Muslims
often refer to the mosque by its Arabic name, Masjid. The mosque serves
as a place where Muslims can come together for prayer as well as a
center for information, education and dispute settlement. This post
features top 20 largest mosques of the world, hope you will like our effort. read more after the break...20 photos..
18. Masjid e Tooba (Gol Masjid), Karachi, Pakistan
Masjid e Tooba or Tooba Mosque is located in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. Locally, it is also known
as the Gol Masjid. Masjid e Tooba was built in 1969 in Defense Housing
Society, Karachi is nineteenth largest mosque in the world. It is
located just off main Korangi Road. Masjid e Tooba is often claimed to
be the largest single dome mosque in the world. It is also major
tourist attraction in Karachi. Masjid e Tooba is built with pure white
marble. The dome of the Masjid e Tooba is 72 meters (236 feet) in
diameter, and is balanced on a low surrounding wall with no central
pillars. Masjid e Tooba has a single minaret standing 70 meters high.
The central prayer hall has a capacity of 5,000 people. It has been
built keeping acoustics in mind. A person speaking inside one end of the
dome can be heard at the other end. This mosque was designed by
Pakistani architect Dr Babar Hamid Chauhan.
17. Al Fateh Mosque (Bahrain Grand Mosque)
The Al-Fateh Mosque also known as Al-Fateh Islamic
Center & Al Fateh Grand Mosque is eighteenth of the largest
mosques in the world, capable of accommodating over 7,000 worshippers
at a time. he mosque is the largest place of worship in Bahrain. It is
located next to the King Faisal Highway in Juffair, which is a town
located in the capital city of Manama. The mosque very close to the
Royal Bahraini Palace, the residence of the king of Bahrain Hamad ibn
Isa Al Khalifah. The huge dome built on top of the Al-Fatih Mosque is
made of pure fiberglass.
16. Sultan Ahmed Mosque, Istanbul
The Sultan Ahmed Mosque is a
historical mosque in Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey and the
capital of the Ottoman Empire (from 1453 to 1923). The mosque is
popularly known as the Blue Mosque for the blue tiles adorning the
walls of its interior. It was built between 1609 and 1616, during the
rule of Ahmed I. Like many other mosques, it also comprises a tomb of
the founder, a madrasah and a hospice. While still used as a mosque,
the Sultan Ahmed Mosque has also become a popular tourist attraction.
Sultan Ahmed Mosque is known as seventeenth largest mosque in the world.
15. Grozny Central Dome Mosque
14. Baitul Futuh Mosque
The Bait’ul Futuh Mosque is the
largest mosque in Western Europe and fifteenth largest in the world
with an area of 5.2 acres (21,000 m2), the mosque complex can
accommodate up to 10,000 worshippers. Built in 2003 at a cost of
approximately £5.5 million, entirely from donations of the Ahmadiyya
Muslim Community, it is located in the south-west London suburb of Morden, next to Morden South railway station, 150 yards from the Morden Underground.
13. Masjid Negara, Malaysia
The Masjid Negara is the
national mosque of Malaysia, located in Kuala Lumpur. It has a capacity
of 15,000 people and is situated among 13 acres (53,000 m2) of
beautiful gardens. The original structure was designed by a
three-person team from the Public Works Department – UK architect
Howard Ashley, and Malaysians Hisham Albakri and Baharuddin Kassim.
Originally built in 1965, it is a bold and modern approach in
reinforced concrete, symbolic of the aspirations of a then
newly-independent Malaysia. Its key features are a 73-metre-high minaret
and an 18-pointed star concrete main roof. The umbrella, synonymous
with the tropics, is featured conspicuously – the main roof is
reminiscent of an open umbrella, the minaret’s cap a folded one. The
folded plates of the concrete main roof is a creative solution to
achieving the larger spans required in the main gathering hall.
Reflecting pools and fountains spread throughout the compound. Masjid
Negara known as thirteenth largest mosque in the world.
12. Id Kah Mosque, China
The Id Kah Mosque is a mosque
located in Kashgar, Xinjiang, in the western People’s Republic of
China. It is the largest mosque in China and twelfth largest mosque in
the world . Every Friday, it houses nearly 10,000 worshippers and may
accommodate up to 20,000. The mosque was built by Saqsiz Mirza in ca.
1442 (although it incorporated older structures dating back to 996) and covers 16,800 square meters.
11. Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Oman
In
1992 Sultan Qaboos directed that his country of Oman should have a
Grand Mosque. A competition for its design took place in 1993 and after
a site was chosen at Bausher construction commenced in 1995. Building
work, which was undertaken by Carillion Alawi LLC took six years and
four months. The Mosque is built from 300,000 tonnes of Indian
sandstone and eleventh largest mosque in the world. The main musalla
(prayer hall) is square (external dimensions 74.4 x 74.4 metres) with a
central dome rising to a height of fifty metres above the floor. The
dome and the main minaret (90 metres) and four flanking minarets (45.5
metres) are the mosque’s chief visual features.
10. Baitul Mukarram, Bangladesh
Baitul Mukarram is the national
mosque of Bangladesh. Located at the heart of Dhaka, capital of
Bangladesh, the mosque was founded during the 1960s. The mosque has a
capacity of 30,000, giving it the respectable position
of being the 10th biggest mosque in the world. However the mosque is
constantly getting overcrowded. This especially occurs during the Islamic
holy month of Ramadan, which has resulted in the Bangladeshi
government having to add extensions to the mosque, thus increasing the
capacity to at least 40,000.
9. Jama Masjid, Delhi, India
Jama Masjid, commonly known as the Jama Masjid of Delhi, is the principal mosque of Old Delhi in India. Commissioned by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, builder of the Taj Mahal, and completed in the year 1656 AD, it is the largest and best-known
mosque in India and ninth largest mosque in the world. It lies at the
origin of a very busy central street of Old Delhi, Chandni Chowk. The
later name, Jama Masjid, is a reference to the weekly Friday noon
congregation prayers of Muslims, Jummah, which are usually done at a
mosque, the “congregational mosque”. The courtyard of the mosque can
hold up to twenty-five thousand worshipers.
8. Sheikh Zayed Mosque
Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu
Dhabi is the largest mosque in the United Arab Emirates and the eighth
largest mosque in the world. It is named after Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan
Al Nahyan, the founder and the first President of the United Arab
Emirates, who is also buried there. The mosque was officially opened in
the Islamic month of Ramadan in 2007.
7. Badshahi Mosque, Lahore, Pakistan
The
Badshahi Mosque or the ‘Emperor’s Mosque’ in Lahore is the second
largest mosque in Pakistan and South Asia and the seventh largest
mosque in the world. Epitomising the beauty, passion and grandeur of
the Mughal era, it is Lahore’s most famous landmark and a major tourist
attraction. Capable of accommodating 10,000 worshippers in its main
prayer hall and a further 100,000 in its courtyard and porticoes, it
remained the largest mosque in the world from 1673 to 1986 (a period of
313 years), when overtaken in size by the completion of the Faisal
Mosque in Islamabad. Today, it remains the second largest mosque in
Pakistan and South Asia and the fifth largest mosque in the world.
6. Faisal Mosque, Islamabad, Pakistan
The Faisal Mosque in Islamabad
is the largest mosque in Pakistan and South Asia and the sixth largest
mosque in the world. It was the largest mosque in the world from 1986
to 1993 when overtaken in size by the completion of the Hassan II
Mosque in Casablanca, Morocco. Subsequent expansions of the Masjid
al-Haram (Grand Mosque) of Mecca and the Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (Prophet’s
Mosque) in Medina, Saudi Arabia during the 1990s relegated Faisal
Mosque to fourth place in terms of size. Faisal Mosque is conceived as
the National Mosque of Pakistan. It has a covered area of 5,000 m2
(54,000 sq ft) and has a capacity to accommodate approximately 300,000
worshippers (100,000 in its main prayer hall, courtyard and porticoes
and another 200,000 in its adjoining grounds).
5. The Hassan II Mosque
Located in Casablanca is the
largest mosque in Morocco and the fifth largest mosque in the world.
Designed by the French architect Michel Pinseau and built by
Bouygues.[1] It stands on a promontory looking out to the Atlantic,
which can be seen through a gigantic glass floor with room for 25,000
worshippers. A further 80,000 can be accommodated in the mosque’s
adjoining grounds for a total of 105,000 worshippers present at any
given time at the Hassan II mosque. Its minaret is the world’s tallest
at 210 m (689 ft).
4. Istiqlal Mosque
Istiqlal Mosque, or Masjid
Istiqlal, in Jakarta, Indonesia is the largest mosque in Southeast Asia
in term of capacity to accommodate people. However in term of building
structure and land coverage, Istiqlal is the largest in Southeast Asia
and fourth largest in the world. This national mosque of Indonesia was
build to commemorate Indonesian independence, as nation’s gratitude
for God’s blessings; the independence of Indonesia. Therefore the
national mosque of Indonesia was named “Istiqlal”, an Arabic word for
“Independence”.
3. Imam Reza Shrine
Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad,
Iran is a complex which contains the mausoleum of Ima-m Ridha, the
eighth Imam of Twelver Shi’ites and known as third largest mosque of
the world. Also contained within the complex include: the Goharshad
Mosque, a museum, a library, four seminaries, a cemetery, the Razavi
University of Islamic Sciences, a dining hall for pilgrims, vast prayer
halls, and other buildings.
2. Al-Masjid al-Nabawi
Al-Masjid al-Nabawi “Mosque of
the Prophet”), often called the Prophet’s Mosque, is a mosque situated
in the city of Medina. As the final resting place of the Islamic
Prophet Muhammad, it is considered the second holiest site in Islam by
both Shia and Sunni Muslims (the first being the Masjid al-Haram in
Mecca) and is the second largest mosque in the world.
1. Masjid al-Haram, Mecca, Saudi Arabia
Masjid al-Haram is the largest
mosque in the world. Located in the city of Mecca, it surrounds the
Kaaba, the place which Muslims worldwide turn towards while offering
daily prayers and is Islam’s holiest place. The mosque is also known as
the Grand Mosque. The current structure covers an area of 4,008,020
square metres (990.40 acres) including the outdoor and indoor praying
spaces and can accommodate up to four million Muslim worshippers during
the Hajj period, one of the largest annual gatherings of people in the
world.
