In Egypt's new capital stands the country's largest mosque, with room for more than one hundred thousand worshippers.
It is Masjid Misr, the Egypt Mosque, in the New Administrative Capital, east of Cairo. It was inaugurated in March 2023.
In 2019, Egypt had opened what was then its largest mosque, Masjid Al-Fattah Al-Aleem, which holds about seventeen thousand. Masjid Misr holds several times as many.
Its prayer hall holds about twelve thousand. Two courtyards, one above the other, hold about ninety-five thousand more. Sources differ on the total, from about one hundred and seven thousand to one hundred and thirty-seven thousand.
Two minarets rise about one hundred and forty metres above the upper courtyard, and the main dome is about thirty metres wide. Its style blends modern design with traditional Islamic architecture.
Inside, the walls are of natural marble, and wooden ceilings rise nineteen metres. The names of Allah, Subhanahu wa Ta'ala, decorate its domes.
A chandelier twenty-two metres wide, with one hundred and seven lanterns, hangs inside. Guinness World Records lists it as the heaviest in the world, at about twenty-four tonnes.
The wooden minbar, about sixteen and a half metres high, is listed by Guinness as the tallest in the world.
The mosque is part of Egypt's Islamic Cultural Center, which also has a library and halls for events.
In 2015, the concept for Egypt's purpose-built New Administrative Capital was introduced. In 2019, the first major religious buildings serving the new city, the Al-Fattah al-Aleem Mosque and a Coptic Orthodox cathedral, were completed. Early in 2021, plans to build Masjid Misr, a larger mosque, were announced, and this project was finished in 2022. In March 2023, Egypt's president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi officially opened the Islamic Cultural Centre.
Architecture and design
Situated near the Presidential Axis, Route 11, and People's Square to the north, the center is located in the Governmental District. It is situated on a plateau that is 24 metres (79 ft) high and has the Mohamed Bin Zayed Northern Road as its southern boundary. The Grand Mosque, a library, an Islamic museum, a conference center, ceremonial halls, classrooms, retail stores, and a seven-storey parking structure with room for 3,000 cars are all part of the complex.
Egypt's Grand Mosque draws influence from the scenery of the Nile Delta to combine modern design features with traditional Islamic architectural aspects. The outside design of the mosque is modeled after a lotus blossom in bloom, signifying purity and the advancement of spirituality. Inside are calligraphy, intricate geometric designs, and other elements of Islamic creative culture.
The mosque is flanked by two minarets that rise 140 metres (460 ft) above the top courtyard, and it contains six halls, including the central prayer hall. The steel center dome measures 29.5 metres (97 ft) in diameter. This mosque broke three records: it features the largest chandelier in the world, measuring 22 metres (72 ft) in diameter, the heaviest chandelier, weighing 24,300 kilograms (53,600 lb), and the tallest pulpit in the world, standing at 16.6 metres (54 ft). With 12,000 seats in the main prayer hall, 40,000 in the upper hall, and 55,000 in the basement hall, the 19,000-square-metre (200,000 sq ft) mosque can hold 107,000 worshipers.
The mosque has two levels, with three main entrances and a fourth for services. The first level is 20 metres (66 ft) high, while the second level reaches the pinnacle of the dome at 57 metres (187 ft). There are separate domes for the east and west halls as well. The mosque's secondary and upper courtyards are connected by service buildings and a commercial culture center. The mosque is surrounded by 30,000 square metres (320,000 sq ft) of white marble. There are two arcades located on its east and on its west. The mosque was completed at a cost of E£800 million (US$25.9 million; £20.7 million).
More to know
The Museum of Qur'an Reciters is located within the Dar al-Qur'an at Egypt's Islamic Cultural Center. It was inaugurated on 15 December 2025 by Minister of Culture Ahmed Fouad Hanno and Minister of Endowments Osama al-Azhari.
The museum comprises four exhibition halls displaying manuscripts, historical documents, personal belongings and recitation certificates associated with prominent Egyptian Qur'an reciters. its collection includes materials relating to Muhammad Rifat, Mustafa Ismail, Mahmoud Khalil Al-Hussary, Muhammad Siddiq Al-Minshawi and Abdul Basit 'Abd us-Samad, among others. The museum also features dedicated listening rooms for recorded Qur'anic recitations.
The History, Architecture and later sections are adapted from the Wikipedia article “Egypt's Islamic Cultural Center”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the full article. Text has been shortened.
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