A Thousand Mosques in Turkey

Turkey is not only identical with the Blue Mosque which of the dome is not actually in blue colour. There are many other mosques which beautify the face of this country across between the Asian and European continent. Despite the secular system which religious attributes is forbidden to wear in public schools and institutions, there are still quite a lot of people practicing religious activity that makes Turkey peaceful.

Between Dzikr and Secularism

Yes, Turkey is indeed secular. Everywhere I saw that people here behave more freely, such as kissing between couples deeply in love in the street, or wearing open clothes in such Western way. But besides that fact, I also saw a lot of Turkish girls in their Muslim dress, or young and old men counting the string of beads in their hands to do the dzikr every time. Their beautiful mosques still make prayer’s calls or adzan towards every praying time too. And these calls however still use the Arabic language.

Five times pray is still also being practiced by quite a lot of its people, either in small praying rooms called mescit as well as in mosques. These mosques are those left by the Ottoman Kingdom and new-built ones with the architecture style derived from the 15^th century, the golden era of Islam in that country. These are a few of the mosques I had the occasion to explore:

Kocatepe Mosque

Kocatepe Mosque

The biggest and most hilarious mosque in Ankara, it was built in the year of 1967 on the top of Kocatepe hill in Kizilay district. Its design took the pattern of the architecture of the Süleymaniye, one of the oldest mosques in Istanbul. The inside part of this building has the capacity for as many as 15.000 people with its 1288 meter width. The outside part has the 4500 meter towards its yard and the big parking lot. Four minarets burst out around its domes with its height of 88 meter, and the main dome reach the height of 98,5 meter. From the top of the hill, the beauty and splendour of the mosque seem so extraordinary that I can never stop to admire it.