The Nur-Nur Sultan Mosque (Kazakh: Нұр-Астана мешіті, Nur-Nur Sultan meşiti), is a mosque located in the city of Nur Sultan, the capital of Kazakhstan. A block south of the western part of Nurzhol bulvar stands the beautiful four-minaret Nur Nur Sultan mosque. Its prayer hall (for men only – women use the upper gallery) is an exquisite multimode space with inscriptions and geometrical patterning in blue, white, gold and red. It is third largest mosque in Central Asia. The 40-meter (131-foot) height symbolizes the age of the Prophet Muhammad of when he received the revelations, and the height of the minarets are 63 meters (207 foot), the age Muhammad was when he died.
The mosque is located at the left riverbank in the city of Nur Sultan, construction first started in March 2005. The mosque was a gift in accordance with the agreement of the Kazakhstan President, Nursultan Nazarbayev and the Emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa. It has a capacity of 5,000 worshippers inside the mosque, including 2,000 for worshippers outside the mosque. The structure is made of glass, concrete, granite and alucobond measures.
The construction of the central mosque "Nur Nur Sultan" was initiated in 2002 and put into operation on March 22, 2005 on the initiative of the Head of State Nursultan Nazarbayev.
This mosque is funded by Qatar's emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani as a gratuitous gift. The project of the mosque is made by the Lebanese architect Charles Hafiz, the general contractor of construction - the Turkish "Passiner".
It is a beautiful mosque but it's not as larger and well maintained or decorated as Hazret Sultan Mosque. The mosque is open to visitors. There are cubbies for shoes (one side for men and one side for women) at the entrance. There is no attendant and the cubbies are open. Outside the shoe room there is a stand with blue-hooded robes for women, who are not in Muslim attire. There did not appear to be a charge for using the robe. The area reserved for praying men is marketed with posts with velvet ropes between them. Women can pray in the upper balcony.
