When Turkish architect Vedat Dalokay‘s design was chosen for the Faisal Mosque, many raised their eyebrows. The project differed from traditional mosque architecture, as it featured contemporary, sleek lines and, most notably, lacked a dome. Construction work began in 1976 and was finally completed ten years later. By then, most criticism had crumbled in front of the imposing, captivating building that now dominates Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital city, from its elevated position at the foot of the Margalla Hills. The mosque is named after Faisal bin Abdul-Aziz, the Saudi king who suggested the idea of a national Pakistani mosque, and largely financed its construction. The 5,000-square-meter prayer hall is an eight-sided, concrete structure, inspired by the traditional tents of Bedouins, with a capacity for 100,000 worshippers. It’s surrounded by four 88-metre-high minarets in perfect one-to-one ratio with the base. They were designed as the sides of an imaginary cube, in honor of the sacred, cubic Kaaba found at the centre of Mecca’s most important mosque.
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