It is also Africa's largest, but critics see it as a vanity project by the former president, who named it after himself.
Algeria has completed the world's third largest mosque and Africa's largest mosque ahead of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, after years of delays amid political changes.
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Monday officially inaugurated the Grand Mosque of Algiers on North Africa's Mediterranean coast.
Known locally as Djemaa el Jazail, it features the world's tallest minaret at 265 meters (869 ft) and can seat 120,000 people, making it the world's holiest site after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. It is the largest mosque.
It took seven years to build on an area of 27.75 hectares (approximately 70 acres) of modernist architecture, is decorated with wood and marble, and incorporates Arab and North African flourishes. It reportedly has a landing pad for helicopters and a library that can hold up to one million books.
The official opening of the mosque will allow it to host a number of public prayers and events during the month of Ramadan, which begins around March 10.
However, it has been open to foreign tourists and state guests to Algeria for about five years, and was first held for prayers in October 2020, but Tebboune was unable to attend as he was suffering from COVID-19. Therefore, the inauguration event was mainly ceremonial.
The vast mosque reportedly cost nearly $900 million to build and was built by a Chinese company.
Algeria currently boasts the largest mosque outside of Islam's holiest site, but the project has been marked by years of delays and cost overruns. There has been criticism that the building is being built in an area at risk of earthquakes, but the government denies this.
Critics also claim the mosque was essentially a vanity project of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who was forced to resign in 2019 after two decades in power.
Bouteflika, who was forced to resign following popular protests and eventual intervention by the Algerian military, named the mosque after him and planned to inaugurate it in February 2019, but that never happened. Ta.
The mosque, along with a major national highway and 1 million new homes, has been marred by allegations of corruption during the Bouteflika era, with kickbacks allegedly being paid to state officials by contractors.
