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Ankara’s Kocatepe Mosque


Image by modenadude
Ankara’s largest mosque was built not that long ago — it’s less than a half century old. This modern-style architecture is apparent at first glance up-close: it has a plaster-look to it rather than the stone/brick look that the wonderful yet ancient Ottoman mosques do in other parts of Turkey.

Regardless, the Kocatepe (named after the region in Ankara where it calls home) towers in the center of the city, and can even be seen from the mountains when entering the city — even at night when I entered since they light it up.

The mosque sits atop a tall foundation with a shopping mall and parking garage below — a very modern approach. The grounds of the Kocatepe Mosque are quite large, it almost felt like a giant maze when I wandered about on the early, cloudy Thanksgiving morning. The interior of the mosque holds four levels of prayers, and there is a separate door that leads a few floors into the ground as well. I nearly got lost.

While I was a bit dissapointed with how modern it looked after driving through Turkey from Istanbul and seeing all these gorgeous ancient Ottoman mosques along the way, its size and interior made up for it — I’ll put a panorama of the inside soon… it was jaw-dropping. In my opinion, much more beautiful than the Blue Mosque. Especially that orb chandalier in the center!

A fun tidbit: The architect of the Kocatepe Mosque, Vedat Dalokay, was once the mayor of Ankara and also was the designer of Islamabad’s famous Faisal Mosque… which looks nothing like it — more like a monster church you’d find in Texas than a mosque.

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