Çamlıca Mosque welcomes 7 million visitors

ISTANBUL

Nearly 7 million people visited the Çamlıca Mosque, which was built atop Çamlıca Hill that oversees Istanbul and the Bosphorus in a panoramic way, since it opened to worship last year.

The mosque has been empty these days as Turkey closed all places of worship as part of its measures against the COVID-19 outbreak.

But the mosque’s complex welcomes visitors with a rich library that has nearly 40,000 books and a conference hall at normal times.

It is expected that the Museum of Islamic Civilizations, which will exhibit rare artifacts, will be built soon.

The mosque, which was officially inaugurated by Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan officially on May 3, 2019 with the participation of 50,000 of people, has six minarets to represent the six pillars of the Islamic faith.

Four of these minarets, which feature three balconies, are 107.1 meters high and are dedicated to the Battle of Manzikert, which led to the mass movement of Turks into Central Anatolia.

The two other minarets feature two balconies and are 90 meters high.

The main dome of the mosque, which is 72 meters high, symbolizes the “72 nations living in Istanbul” – a reference to its diversity – and its 34-meter dome symbolizes the city itself, a reference to the license plate of the city which is 34.

On the main dome of the mosque, there is a 3.12-meter-wide and 7.77-meter-high finial weighing 4.5 tons.

The finial, which was colored with nanotechnology and consists of three parts, is the biggest finial in the world.

Çamlıca Mosque has some of the largest gates for a place of worship in the world, with its main gate spanning 5 meters, 6.5 meters high and weighing 6 tons.

The mosque also has an art gallery of 3,500 square meters, a library of 3,000 square meters, a conference hall that can seat 1,071 people, eight art workshops and an indoor parking lot for 3,500 vehicles.

The mosque is distinguished with its sound, light, heating, ventilation and security systems as well.