A mosque set to hold up to 10,000 people will open in the north next year, on the Near East University campus, it emerged on Monday.
Turkish Cypriot press reports carried by the government’s press and information office, described the mosque as the largest place of worship in the north, and biggest mosque in Cyprus.
It is slated to open on January 11, 2024, with the timing to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the ‘founding’ of the ‘TRNC’.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and a number of other presidents from Muslim countries have been invited for the opening.
The mosque will have 62 domes and six minarets.
According to reports, the mosque will have the largest main dome on the island, with a height of 36.8 meters and a diameter of 23.8 meters. In the main part of the mosque, which has 62 domes including the main dome, there are 27 domes and 9 semi-domes, and 26 domes in the portico.
Each minaret will be 76.2 meters high and with three balconies. The other two minarets, each 56.45 meters high, have two balconies.
The stained glass windows that colour the 104 windows of the mosque are signed by the artists of the ‘Cyprus Museum of Modern Arts’, while the handmade decorations of the dome, which were completed in about a year, are signed by Uzbek artists. For the outer surface of the mosque, white stone was used, which is typical for Cyprus.
