Mosul Grand Mosque, Sunni mosque in Taqafah district, Mosul, Iraq.
Mosul Grand Mosque is an unfinished Sunni mosque in the Taqafah district, near the Tigris and the Nineveh archaeological site. Its ribbed central dome has green vertical bands and sits on a drum with arched windows; smaller smooth tan domes cluster below, and a slender minaret with a domed cap rises at the left. The planned prayer hall covers 6,000 square metres.
Construction began under Saddam Hussein, when the mosque was known as the Saddam Mosque, and was interrupted by political instability. During the 2017 Battle of Mosul, ISIL forces damaged the unfinished building. In February 2019 the Nineveh Governorate municipality announced that work had resumed with a US$50 million grant from the United Arab Emirates, with no completion date set.
The mosque is still unfinished, so it has no prayer life of its own; its cultural weight lies in its name. Built under Saddam Hussein as the Saddam Mosque, it kept that name until a 2019 Emirati grant of US$50 million restarted work. Zayed Al Nahyan had offered to fund the rest on condition it be renamed Zayed Mosque, but the governor and residents of Mosul refused.
The building is currently undergoing restoration work, with construction still in progress and site conditions varying. Visitors should check in advance as portions of the building may not be fully accessible or complete.
In the 2000s Zayed Al Nahyan offered to fund the remaining construction on condition the mosque be renamed Jami' Zayed; the governor of Mosul and the city's residents refused the offer. The building was previously known as the Saddam Mosque.
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