Algeria begins work on mega mosque
Workers in Algiers started laying foundations on Sunday for what
should become the world's third-largest mosque, a one-billion-euro
project that will include a dizzyingly tall minaret.
The huge building in the capital Algiers will be built by the China
State Construction Engineering Corporation and is expected to create
17,000 jobs - most of them for Algerians. Construction is due to be
completed in 2015. Algeria's Religious Affairs Minister Bouabdallah
Ghlamallah and Chinese ambassador Liu Yuhe attended the
foundation-laying ceremony, the official APS news agency reported.
"The construction of this building represents a new landmark in
Sino-Algerian relations," the minister said. The mosque complex will
include Africa's tallest minaret, culminating almost as high as the
Eiffel Tower at 270 metres. It will have 25 levels and eight elevators
to whisk observers to the top to view the bay of Algiers. It will also
comprise a prayer room for 120,000 worshippers, a 2,000-seat library, an
art museum and a research centre. AFP |