10 Most Beautiful Mosques in the World

Mosque (Masjid) is a holy place for Mus­lims. It is a place of wor­ship for all fol­low­ers of Islam, where all the Mus­lims of the com­mu­ni­ty gath­er togeth­er and pray. Mosques are fine exam­ples of excel­lent archi­tec­ture. They are found all over the world and have become one of the most pop­u­lar attrac­tions.

Here are 10 impres­sive, amaz­ing and most beau­ti­ful mosques from around the world. This superb archi­tec­ture will leave you breath­less.

1. Al-Haram Mosque

The Koran says that this was the first house built by mankind for the wor­ship of Allah. The most famous mon­u­ment in the world, the Al-Haram Mosque or “Great Mosque” is locat­ed in the city of Mec­ca, Sau­di Ara­bia. This is the largest mosque in the world, which sur­rounds one of the sacred places of Islam — the Kaa­ba.

The cur­rent struc­ture cov­ers an area of ​​400,800 square meters, includ­ing open and closed prayer areas, and can accom­mo­date up to 4 mil­lion peo­ple dur­ing the Hajj, one of the largest annu­al Mus­lim wor­ships in the world.

2. Al-Masjid an-Nabawi

Al-Nabawi, often referred to as the Prophet’s Mosque, is a mosque built by the Prophet Muham­mad in the city of Med­i­na. This is the sec­ond sacred place in Islam. In addi­tion, it was the sec­ond built mosque in his­to­ry. Now it is one of the largest shrines in the world after Al-Haram in Mec­ca. One of the most impor­tant fea­tures of this mosque is the Green Dome, where the tomb of the Prophet Muham­mad is locat­ed. In 1279 AD, a wood­en dome was built over the tomb, which was lat­er rebuilt and ren­o­vat­ed sev­er­al times in the late 15th cen­tu­ry and once in 1817. The dome was first paint­ed green in 1837.

3. Al-Aqsa Mosque — Jerusalem

Al-Aqsa Mosque, also known as Al-Aqsa and Bait al-Muqad­das. This is the third sacred place in Islam. Also an Islam­ic shrine locat­ed in the Old City of Jerusalem. The mosque itself is part of Al-Haram al-Sharif or the “Holy Noble Sanc­tu­ary” (togeth­er with the Dome of the Rock). This place is also known as the Tem­ple Mount — the most sacred place in Judaism.

Accord­ing to Islam­ic tra­di­tion, the Prophet Muham­mad offered prayers to this mosque until the sev­en­teenth month after the emi­gra­tion, when Allah ordered him to turn to the Kaa­ba. Read more about these places in the arti­cle “10 Ancient Won­ders of the Mid­dle East”.

4. Mosque of Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin

The Sul­tan Omar Ali Sai­fud­din Mosque is a roy­al Islam­ic mosque locat­ed in Ban­dar Seri Begawan, the cap­i­tal of the Sul­tanate of Brunei. The mosque is con­sid­ered one of the most beau­ti­ful in the Asia-Pacif­ic region and a major tourist attrac­tion in Brunei. The build­ing was built in 1958 and is an exam­ple of mod­ern Islam­ic archi­tec­ture.

The mosque is built in an arti­fi­cial lagoon on the banks of the Brunei Riv­er in Kam­pong Ayer, the “vil­lage in the water.” It has mar­ble minarets and gold­en domes with court­yards, lush gar­dens with foun­tains. It is sur­round­ed by a large num­ber of trees and flower gar­dens, which in Islam sym­bol­ize heav­en. The mosque com­bines Mughal archi­tec­ture and Ital­ian style.

See also: Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi

5. Zahir Mosque — Kedah, Malaysia

Zahir Mosque is the gov­ern­ment mosque of Kedah. It is locat­ed in the heart of Alor Star, the cap­i­tal of Kedah, Malaysia. This one of the largest and old­est mosques in Malaysia was built in 1912 at the expense of Tunku Mah­mud, the son of Sul­tan Tajud­din Mukar­ram Shah. The archi­tec­ture of the mosque is inspired by the AZIZI Mosque in the city of Langkat in north­ern Suma­tra, Indone­sia. The Zahir was built with five large domes sym­bol­iz­ing the five basic prin­ci­ples of Islam. Every year, a state com­pe­ti­tion for read­ing the Koran is held on the ter­ri­to­ry of the shrine.

6. Faisal Mosque, Islamabad — Pakistan

Faisal Mosque in Islam­abad is the largest mosque in the south­east and south of Asia and the fourth largest in the world. It was the largest mosque in the world from 1986–1993 before the com­ple­tion of the Has­san II Mosque in Casablan­ca, Moroc­co, and after the expan­sion of Masjid al-Haram in Mec­ca and Al-Masjid al-Nabawi in Med­i­na, Sau­di Ara­bia, 1990s.

7. Taj-ul Mosque — Bhopal, India

Taj-ul-Masajid lit­er­al­ly means “Crown of Mosques”. The mosque is also used as an Islam­ic school dur­ing the day. This is one of the largest mosques in Asia. Its pink façade also fea­tures three huge onion domes, an impres­sive main hall with attrac­tive columns and a mar­ble floor rem­i­nis­cent of Mughal archi­tec­ture. It has a court­yard with a large reser­voir in the cen­ter, a two-sto­ry gate with four recessed arched open­ings, and nine mul­ti-pitched open­ings in the main prayer hall.

8. Badshahi Mosque in Lahore — Pakistan

The Bad­shahi Mosque, or “Roy­al Mosque” in Lahore, was com­mis­sioned by the sixth Mughal Emper­or Aurangzeb in 1671 and com­plet­ed in 1673. It is the sec­ond largest mosque in Pak­istan and South Asia and the fifth largest mosque in the world. Embody­ing the beau­ty, pas­sion and grandeur of the Mughal era, this is Lahore’s most famous land­mark. Capa­ble of accom­mo­dat­ing 55,000 wor­shipers in the main prayer hall and anoth­er 95,000 in the court­yard and por­ti­cos, it remained the largest mosque in the world from 1673 to 1986 (a peri­od of 313 years).

Anoth­er amaz­ing mon­u­ment: the Blue Mosque of Istan­bul

9. Sultan Mosque, Singapore

The Sul­tan Mosque, locat­ed at Mus­cat Street and North Bridge Road in the Kam­pong Glam Rochor area of ​​Sin­ga­pore, is still con­sid­ered one of the most impor­tant in Sin­ga­pore. This amaz­ing attrac­tion has hard­ly changed since its con­struc­tion, only in 1960 the main hall was improved and an exten­sion was added in 1993. On March 14, 1975, it became a nation­al mon­u­ment.

10. Hassan II Mosque — Morocco

The Great Mosque of Has­san II is locat­ed in Casablan­ca, Moroc­co. It is the largest mosque in the coun­try and the sev­enth largest in the world. Its minaret, built in 1993, is the high­est in the world with a height of 210 meters. The 60-sto­ry minaret is crowned with a laser, the light of which is direct­ed towards Mec­ca. The mosque stands on a cape over­look­ing the Atlantic Ocean, the seabed is vis­i­ble through the glass floor of the hall of the build­ing. The walls are hand­made mar­ble, the roof is retractable. A max­i­mum of 105,000 believ­ers can gath­er for prayer: 25,000 in the hall of the mosque and anoth­er 80,000 on its out­er ter­ri­to­ry.

Read more: Great Mosque of Samar­ra in Iraq