Djamaa el Djazaïr

Djamaa el Djazaïr (), also known as the Great Mosque of Algiers (), is a large mosque located 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.

The mosque features a prayer hall (salat) with an area of , capable of accommodating 120,000 worshippers. The central nave of this hall is surrounded by colonnades, with the mihrab located to the east, made of white marble. The hall is topped by a dome with a diameter of , reaching a height of .

History
The project to provide the capital Algiers with a grand mosque was presented as an initiative of the former Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika to mark his presidential mandates.

The German consortium that designed Djamaâ El Djazaïr consisted of two architectural firms named "KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten" and "Krebs und Kiefer" until 2016. This German consortium won the international architectural competition for the project in January 2008, and the contract was signed in July 2008 for the execution in the presence of the German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The commission included general design and execution studies for all disciplines, as well as monitoring and control of the construction works of Djamaâ El Djazaïr. The design team consisted of over 100 architects and engineers. In 2007, the engineering and construction company Dessau-Soprin obtained the project management contract.

The Chinese company China State Construction Engineering (CSCEC) was tasked with the construction of the Mosque El Djazaïr. The first concrete foundation casting operations began on 16 August 2012, after a launching ceremony. The construction was expected to create 17,000 jobs, with 10,000 workers from China and 7,000 from Algeria.

The French engineering firm Socotec later joined the project. The French consulting firm Egis oversaw the construction from February 2016 to verify the additional plans provided by CSCEC.

Djamaâ El Djazaïr was financed by the Algerian state with an initial budget of 1 billion euros (approximately 1.5 billion dollars). The official cost of the mosque was 898 million euros or nearly 2 billion dollars. The construction lasted for seven years.

The construction was criticized for its monumental aspect and its expensive costs. Despite some criticisms, the inauguration and the first prayer inside the mosque attracted a large crowd of Algerian faithful.

Architecture
The mosque sits on a site covering  and overlooks 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(قرآن) 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  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  of calligraphic writing engraved with a laser system. The dome of the prayer hall has a diameter of  and rises to a height of .

Gallery

See also
 Algerian Islamic reference
 Hizb Rateb (Hezzab, Bash Hezzab, Salka)
 Lists of mosques
 List of mosques in Africa
 List of mosques in Algeria
 List of tallest buildings in Algeria
 List of tallest buildings in Africa
 List of cultural assets of Algeria
 List of most expensive buildings

References

External links
 

Buildings and structures in Algiers
Islamic holy places
Mosques in Algiers
Mosques completed in 2019
Djazair
2019 establishments in Algeria
21st-century religious buildings and structures in Algeria