Conakry Grand Mosque , Guinea

                                                    Conakry Grand Mosque , Guinea



Basic Information
Location                Conakry, Guinea
Established            1982
Capacity               12,500


Description
Guinea is a country in West Africa. It was formerly known as French Guinea, or Guinée française. It covers 245,857 sq km (94,926 sq mi) and has a population of slightly over 10 million people (2011 estimate). Guinea is bordered by Guinea-Bissau and Senegal to the northwest, Mali to the north, Côte d'Ivoire to the east, and Liberia and Sierra Leone to the south. Guinea has a coastline facing the Atlantic Ocean to the east. The country forms an eastward curve around the northern border of Sierra Leone.

The Conakry Grand Mosque is a mosque in Conakry, Guinea, located north of the Conakry Botanical Garden. It was built by Ahmed Sékou Touré, opening in 1982. It is the largest in West Africa. Grand Mosque from rear The mosque was built by Sékou Touré with funding from King Fahd of Saudi Arabia. It is the largest mosque in West Africa and the fifth in the world after Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Al-Masjid al-Nabawi in Medina, Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca. Its four minarets, covered in green tiles (the color of Islam) can be seen from far away.


The mosque is located beside the Donka Hospital. Women must cover themselves from head to foot before they can enter. The mosque has 2,500 places on the upper level for women and 10,000 below for men. The gardens of the mosque contain the Camayanne Mausoleum, including Samouri Touré, Sékou Touré and Alpha Yaya. On 28 September 2009 a demonstration against the military junta at a city stadium was violently suppressed by security forces, with hundreds of deaths and dozens of injuries. On Friday 2 October the bodies of 508 victims were laid in the esplanade in front of the mosque. A large body of prostitutes were present, and people started throwing stones at them. The police responded with tear gas, which flooded the interior of the mosque.