20. Al-Aqsa
Mosque, Jerusalem
Al-Aqsa Mosque
also known as al-Aqsa, is an Islamic holy place in the
Old City of Jerusalem. 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.
19. 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.
18. 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.
17. 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.
16. Grozny
Central Dome Mosque
Akhmad Kadyrov
Grozny Central Dome Mosque is located in Grozny, the
capital of Chechnya, and bears the name of Akhmad
Kadyrov. The mosque design is based on the Blue Mosque
in İstanbul. On October 16, 2008, the mosque was
officially opened in a ceremony in which Chechen leader
Ramzan Kadyrov spoke and was with Russian Prime Minister
Vladimir Putin. This mosque is one of the biggest in
Europe. In this mosque ten thousand Muslims can pray at
a time and its minarets reach 60m high and is sixteenth
largest mosque in the world.
15. 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.
14.
Masjid-e-Aqsa Rabwah, Pakistan
Masjid-e-Aqsa is
the greatest mosque of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.
The foundation stone was laid in 1966 and the building’s
inauguration took place on March 31, 1972. The mosque is
the main mosque of the Ahmadiyya in Rabwah for 12,000
worshipers. The design came from the mosque, Abdul
Rashid, at the request of Mirza Basheer-ud-Din Mahmood
Ahmad should occur in one Central Mosque Rabwah. The
blueprint was already established during his tenure, but
because of the Caliph was not affected, the foundation
will be laid. On 28 October 1966 Mirza Nasir Ahmad laid
the foundation for the Masjid-e-Aqsa. The Friday Sermon
the third Caliph 31 The mosque was opened in March 1972.
Masjid-e-Aqsa is fourteenth largest mosque in the world.
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 Imām 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.