Hazrat Sultan Mosque
Kazakhstan's largest mosque, opened in 2012, with a 51-metre dome and four 77-metre minarets.
The mosque stands on the right bank of the Esil river, between Independence Square and the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation, and was opened on 6 July 2012 after three years of building work. It covers roughly eleven hectares, with an interior of about 17,700 square metres. The central dome is 51 metres high and 28.1 metres across, and four minarets of 77 metres mark the corners. Around 5,000 worshippers can be accommodated, rising to about 10,000 at festivals.
It is named after Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, the twelfth-century Sufi sheikh and poet whose mausoleum stands at Turkistan; Hazrat Sultan, or Holy Sultan, is one of his epithets. The design follows classical Islamic forms but the ornament draws on Kazakh patterns, carved and painted across the eight subsidiary domes, the muqarnas vaulting and the mihrab. Besides two prayer halls the complex holds ablution rooms, rooms for marriage ceremonies, classrooms and a library. Non-Muslim visitors may enter outside prayer times.
Highlights
- Central dome 51 metres high and 28.1 metres in diameter
- Four corner minarets rising to 77 metres
- Kazakh ornament worked into classical Islamic forms
- Named after the Sufi sheikh Khoja Ahmed Yasawi
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