Kocatepe Mosque (Kocatepe Camii)
Kocatepe Mosque is the largest mosque in Ankara; its area is 4,288 m². The mosque is located in the district of the same name south of the historic center of the Turkish capital, on a hill near Kizilay Square. It is a relatively modern building – the construction was carried out from 1967 to 1987. Erection of the complex was carried out according to the drawings of architect-planner Hüsrev Taylan. The appearance of the Kocatepe Mosque, built in neoclassical Ottoman style, fully complies with the canons of Islamic architecture. It is reminiscent of Selimiye in Edirne, as well as Shahzade and Sultan Ahmet’s mosque in Istanbul, and it is hard to assume that it is not even 30 years old. The building is surrounded by 4 slender minarets with 3 platforms and pointed domes. At the top of each dome there is a crescent moon, and the minarets reach 88 meters in height. The main structure is decorated with several hemispherical domes, the largest of which, with a diameter of more than 25 meters, reaches almost 49 meters in height. The domes and minarets are decorated with gilded crescents. The interiors of the Kocatepe Mosque are also richly decorated with stained glass and gold plates, huge crystal chandeliers, decorative tiles and marble. In its center is a miniature model of the Masjid al-Nabawi mosque located in Medina – a gift of King Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia to President Demirel of Turkey (1993). The Kocatepe architectural complex consists of the mosque itself, a library, a conference center, and a covered parking lot. Its underground rooms house tea shops and a huge supermarket.
