Algeria seeks builders for world's third largest mosque

Algeria calls for offers to build Grand Mosque of Algiers, which could cost several billion dollars.

• ALGIERS – Algeria on Tuesday called for offers to build a Grand Mosque of Algiers, which would be the third largest mosque in the world after those of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.
• Candidate companies should have an annual turnover of at least one billion euros (1.48 billion dollars) and have a permanent staff of more than 2,000 engineers, technicians and office staff, the national agency for the building of the Djamaa El Dzajair (Algiers mosque) specified in a communique.
• The Grand Mosque of Algiers, which could cost several billion dollars, will stand on a terrain of about 20 hectares (49 acres) at Mohammadia opposite the bay of Algiers to the east of the capital, where its minaret will be 270 metres (885 feet) high.
• The main prayer hall will be large enough for 36,000 people, and the complex will also include an inner court, an esplanade, a large auditorium, a library for 2,000 people, a school for Koranic studies and an underground car park with space for 6,000 vehicles.
• Algiers currently has three historic mosques: Djamaa el-Djedid, on which the building work began in 1660, Djamaa el-Kebir, built in the 11th century, and the Ketchaoua below the Casbah (the old town), which was constructed under the Turks from 1794. The Ketchaoua was converted into a cathedral under French colonial rule (1830-1962), and restored to Islam after independence.