From a distance, Esertepe New Mosque appears like a mosque tacked atop an apartment building. The place of worship located in the Turkish capital Ankara’s Keçiören district, has gone viral when its photos made rounds online while it was still under construction. Eleven years after the construction started, it is finally ready to be opened.
In a country where the best examples of Ottoman-era mosques are situated, the six-storey mosque drew criticism for its strange architecture while designers defended it as a necessity due to the steep location it was built upon.
After striving to find funds to wrap up construction, volunteers managed to complete the mosque in June, though more work is needed for the decoration of the mosque and the opening of lower floors which will serve as Quran classes. Still, the faithful can perform prayers on the upper floors.
“It was not looking like a mosque because of the exterior but now it is a good landmark for our neighborhood,” Adnan Ardıç, a local, told Ihlas News Agency (IHA) on Sunday. Indeed, the exterior of the mosque, composed of bricks, was resembling a tall “gecekondu,” a type of shanty, often built without permission and common in big cities, before it was decorated and painted.
