Maryland/US – America’s largest mosque will be inaugurated later this week in Maryland by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, featuring classical Ottoman architecture with two minarets.

“After a declaration of intention in 2009, we started the process for the kulliyah project which would reflect the thought of the Islamic world … with an understanding to build an ancient Islamic Turkish city, we tried to include what is needed in a kulliyah,” the complex architect, Muharrem Hilmi Senalp, told Anadolu Agency.

Located 21 kilometers from Washington DC, the Diyanet Center of America in Maryland will be officially launched next April 2 by the Turkish President.
The Islamic social complex, called kulliya, is the largest mosque in America and the first to have twin minarets on its top.

The land was first bought in 1990 by the Turkish Presidency of Religious Affairs and had only a 100-square-meter small Turkish mosque and community building on it, according to Senalp.
Senalp added that the architecture of the mosque reflects the traditional Ottoman Empire style of the16th and 17th centuries.

The new center will include a library, conference and exhibition halls, an assembly hall and a reception area.

The Islamic Research Center within the building will provide a consultancy service for undergraduate and graduate students coming from Turkey to the US.

There is also a 300-square-meter (3,229—square-foot) Islamic Arts Museum below the mosque and 10 traditional Ottoman houses within the complex, where guests can lodge.

“There is a mosque at the center, and a Turkish-Islamic garden in front of it. Right next to it, there is the cultural center, which is a harmony of classical and modern architecture,” he said.
The entire complex is built on a 60,000-square-meter (64,600-square-foot) area and includes traditional Turkish baths for men and women, swimming pools, a multipurpose hall and an indoor sport complex.

With its two minarets, the mosque is built on 879 square meters (9,461 square feet) and along with its courtyard is large enough for approximately 3,000 Muslims to pray at the same time.