Most Beautiful Mosques In The World

1. The largest and oldest mosque in the world, as well as the holiest site in Islam. Muslims pray facing Mecca, but specifically they are facing this mosque, in particular the Kaaba, a cubed building at the center of the site and the most sacred spot in Islam. In low light it could be mistaken for the Tardis. During the Hajj .....

AL NABAWI MOSQUE MEDINA SAUDI ARABIA

2. The prophet Muhammad used to live here, and also had the mosque built on the grounds, sharing in much of the construction himself. For these reasons, plus the fact that he .....

AL AQSA MOSQUE JERUSALEM

3. The third holiest site in Islam, Muslims believe that Muhammad was transported here from the Al Haram Mosque in Mecca during the Night Journey, and then on to heaven. However, according to the new Garmin we just picked up from Best Buy, this is a journey of around thirty two hours, and that .....

DOME OF THE ROCK MOSQUE JERUSALEM

4. We .....

THE BLUE MOSQUE ISTANBUL

5. Its official name is the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, but it is known more popularly as the Blue Mosque because of the blue tiles that decorate the inside walls. There are some 20,000 or so of them, handmade ceramic tiles that decreased in quality over time due to the sultan fixing the price in advance, and not taking inflation into account. In the upper levels of the interior chandeliers have been added. Ostrich eggs are sometimes placed on the chandeli .....

SHAH FAISAL MOSQUE ISLAMABAD

6. An Islamic house of worship that looks like it might also double as a launch pad for space exploration, the Faisal Mosque is actually designed in the shape of a Bedouin .....

HASSAN II MOSQUE CASABLANCA

7. Opened in 1993, at the top is a laser pointing across the sea towards Mecca and extending some twenty miles. At almost 700 feet tall the minaret makes this the tallest religious structure in the world. Or so we .....

SULEYMANIYE MOSQUE ISTANBUL

8. One of the perks of being the longest-reigning sultan in the Ottoman Empire is that you get to build mosques with your name on them. Suleiman The Magnificent, as he became known, must have skipped over the parts of the Quran that call for loving thy neighbor, as he spent the majority of the forty four years of his sultancy trying to wipe them off the map. He led the Ottoman expansion across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, presided over .....

SHEIKH ZAYED GRAND MOSQUE ABU DHABI

9. It .....

NUSRAT DJAHAN MOSQUE COPENHAGEN

10. Muslims comprise about four percent of the Danish population, and numbers are on the rise. Built in 1967, The Nusrat Djahan, located on the outskirts of Copenhagen, is Denmark .....

ZAHIR MOSQUE MALAYSIA

11. Built in 1912 in the city of Alor Setar, capital of the Malaysian state, Kedah, the Zahir mosque has been voted among the top ten most beautiful mosques in the world. We just don .....

UMAYYAD MOSQUE DAMASCUS

12. We .....

THE GREAT MOSQUE OF CORDOBA SPAIN

13. Now pay attention because this was originally a Christian church built by the Visigoths possibly somewhere around 400 AD but then sometime in the Middle Ages it was made into an Islamic mosque and then later, after the Reconquista, which is about 800 years of stuff happening in the Iberian Peninsula .....

BURSA GRAND MOSQUE TURKEY

14. The Bursa Mosque is built with twenty domes and has one of the finest examples of Islamic calligraphy anywhere in the world. It .....

MARREE MOSQUE AUSTRALIA

15. Somehow, you tend not to connect Islam and barbecued lobster on the beach. It may come as a surprise then (or maybe not), to hear that the first mosque in Australia was built in Marree, South Australia, possibly as early as 1861. It has a certain Australian feel to it. .....

QOLSARIF MOSQUE RUSSIA

16. Built in the 16th century the Qolsarif mosque was the largest mosque in Russia for about twenty minutes until it was destroyed by Ivan the Terrible during the storming of Kazan in the 16th century. In 1996 though, it was rebuilt. So take that, Mr. Terrible! It .....

CRYSTAL MOSQUE MALAYSIA

17. Built in 2008 out of steel, glass, and crystal, the Crystal Mosque is on the small side for Islamic houses of worship, and only holds around 1500 people. By church standards, though, it .....

THE LONDON CENTRAL MOSQUE LONDON

18. Located in Regent .....

THE GREAT MOSQUE OF XI AN CHINA

19. Founded in 742 it is the oldest and possibly best known mosque in all of China. Unlike most of the mosques listed here, apart from that one in Australia, the Great Mosque is unique in that it is completely Chinese in its architecture and design. Although a popular tourist stop, it is still actively used as a place of worship by Chinese Muslims .....

PUCHONG PERDANA MOSQUE MALAYSIA

20. Sure, you can say your prayers in this mosque, worship according to Islam, face Mecca and all that good stuff, but if you .....

Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque

21. It is a royal Islamic mosque located in Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of the Sultanate of Brunei. The mosque considered one of the most beautiful mosques in the Asia Pacific and a major landmark and tourist attraction of Brunei. The mosque unites Mughal architecture and Italian styles. The plans were done by Booty and Edwards Chartered Architects according to designs by the Italian architect Cavaliere Rudolfo Nolli. The mosque as a symbol of t .....

Ubudiah Mosque

22. Masjid Ubudiah is Perak's royal mosque, and is situated in the royal town of Kuala Kangsar, Malaysia. Masjid Ubudiah Mosque is the Malaysia's some of most beautiful mosques, the Masjid Ubudiah (or Ubudiah Mosque) has golden dome and minarets creating a spellbinding sight, from near and afar. The mosque was designed by Arthur Benison Hubback, a government architect .This Masjid was Built in 1917 during the reign of the 28th Sultan of Perak, Sultan .....

Badshahi Masjid

23. Epitomizing the beauty, passion and grandeur of the Mughal era, it is Lahore s most famous landmark and a major tourist attraction. Capable of accommodating 5,000 worshippers in its main prayer hall and a further 95,000 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 larges .....

The Kol Sharif Mosque

24. The Kol Sharif, located in Kazan Kremlin, was reputed to be at the time of its construction the largest mosque in Russia, and in Europe outside of Istanbul. Originally, the mosque was built in the Kazan Kremlin in the 16th century. It was named after Qols harif who served there. Qol sharif died with his numerous students while defending Kazan from Russian forces in 1552. It is believed that the building featured minarets, both in the form of cupo .....

The National Mosque of Malaysia

25. The National Mosque of Malaysia is 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. The mosque was built in 1965 on the site of a church, the Venning Road Brethren Gospel Hall which had stood there s .....

Masjid e Tooba

26. 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 .....

Al Fateh Mosque

27. 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 Ha .....

Grozny Central Dome Mosque

28. 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 ?stanbul. 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 .....

Baitul Futuh Mosque

29. 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 .....

Id Kah Mosque

30. 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. .....

Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque

31. 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 d .....

Jama Masjid Delhi India

32. 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 no .....

Sheikh Zayed Mosque

33. 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. .....

Istiqlal Mosque

34. 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 nat .....

Imam Reza Shrine

35. Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad, Iran is a complex which contains the mausoleum of Im?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. .....