Pakistan is a beautiful country, a country that if full of ancient monuments and beautiful places. Many places are unseen in Pakistan not only by the people who live outside Pakistan but they are unseen by many Pakistanis and it is even a shame that many Pakistani don’t even know about some ancient historical places that should be visited at least once in a life time but media is also to be blamed for this as they don’t do enough publicity of our historical places to create awareness in Pakistanis and people of other countries.
Our media and even world media only show and present the negative points and negative things that are happening inPakistan, no one shows the positive side of Pakistan. There are only some monuments about which every Pakistani knows one of them is Faisal Masjid, Islamabad.
The largest Masjid of Pakistan is Faisal Masjid and the capital of Pakistan is the city where it is situated that is named Islamabad. Faisal Masjid holds the title of National Mosque of the countryPakistan. It is not only the largest Masjid of Pakistan but also the largest Masjid of South Asia. It is also amongst the largest mosques of the world. The project of Faisal Masjid of Islamabad was financed and was supported by the late king of Saudi Arabia whose name was King Faisal Bin Abdul Aziz and that is the reason the name of the mosque is Faisal Masjid.
For Faisal Masjid in 1966 the impetus began during the visit of late King Faisal to Pakistan. Many proposals of different architects came forward from number of countries in order to provide the design for the project of Faisal Masjid. In the end, which was after four days the proposals were put forward, the design of Vedat Dalokay was chosen who was an architect from Turkey. In 1976 the construction was started of Faisal Masjid and Azim Khan leaded the construction. The construction was under the supervision of National Construction of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia’s government was funding the construction of Faisal Masjid. Saudi Riyals of 130 million were spent on its construction. In 1986 the construction of Faisal Masjid got completed and it was used by International Islamic University. Its design was criticized by many Muslims in the beginning because they considered its design non-conventional and also because it does not have a dome which is considered as a traditional structure by the Muslims but later people stopped criticizing it because of the mosque’s form, its scale and also because of its setting against the Hills of Margala.
Faisal Masjid covers the area of 54000 square foot. All over it can accommodate 274000 worshippers and it has the 3rd largest capacity to accommodate worshippers after Masjid-Al-Haram and Al-Masjid Al-Nabvi.
