Great Mosque of Algiers

Djamaa el Djazaïr (also known as the Great Mosque

of Algiers (French: Grande mosquée d'Alger), is a
mosque in Algiers, Algeria. It houses the world's
tallest minaret and is the third-largest mosque in the
world after the Great Mosque of Mecca and Al-
Masjid an-Nabawi of Medina in Saudi Arabia.

History

The construction of the mosque began in August 2012 after the Algerian
government's contract, for 1 billion euros, was won by the China State
Construction Engineering Corporation. The design was done by German
architects KSP Juergen Engel Architekten and engineers Krebs und Kiefer
International and was completed by April 2019.[4] The mosque faced
construction delays owing to budgetary concerns due to the falling prices of oil.
Around 2,300 workers from China, Algeria and other African countries were
deployed to work on the project. The construction of the mosque was seen by
many to serve as a symbol of the reign of long-serving president Abdelaziz
Bouteflika.

Architecture

The mosque sits on a site covering 27.75 hectares and overlooking the
Mediterranean Sea. The prayer hall has a capacity of 37,000 worshippers, while
the structure including the compound can house up to 120,000 worshippers
and has parking space for 7,000 cars. The complex also houses a Quran school,
a park, a library, staff housing area, a fire station, a museum of Islamic art, and
a research centre on the history of Algeria.

The mosque also has a 265 m (869 ft) tall minaret, which makes it the tallest
building in Africa. It also houses an observation deck atop the minaret, which
has 37 floors. The mosque is designed to withstand an earthquake of
magnitude 9.0 and the structure has been specially processed to resist
corrosion. The main prayer hall has 618 octagonal columns serving as support
pillars and 6 km (3.7 mi) of calligraphic writing engraved with a laser system.
The dome of the prayer hall has a diameter of 50 m (160 ft) and rises to a
height of 70 m (230 ft)