The largest mosque in the southern hemisphere is being built in Midrand at an estimated cost of R210-million and is due to be completed by January 2012.
It will include the Sama High School, provide boarding facilities for students and have a bazaar, clinic, conference centre and community hall on the site.
The project is being funded by Turkish businessman, Ali Katircioglu and will be handed over to the Foundation Education Trust when completed. The trust, a non-profit organisation, will administer the institution.
The structure includes four minarets, each 55 m high, has a 24 m dome and 24 smaller domes atop the boarding rooms and around the courtyard. The interior has apparently been decorated in the Ottoman style.
Katircioglu has refused to accept any contributions to the cost of erecting this mosque and has insisted that donors should put money into the Foundation Education Trust instead to take care of the running costs of the property and its facilities.
The school is expected to accommodate at least 800 students. It is being built in Le Roux Avenue – where it intersects with the K101 – and is set on ten hectares of ground. It has been modelled on the Selimiye Mosque originally erected in Turkey.
The mosque is the first model of Ottoman architecture in the southern hemisphere.
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