Description of the attraction
As the capital of India, the city of Delhi abounds in a variety of historical sites. So it houses the largest mosque in the country, Jama Masjid. It was built in 1650-1656, during the time of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, who also initiated the construction of the famous Taj Mahal.
The mosque is located on the main street of Old Delhi. It was originally known as Masjid-i Jahan-Numa, and the name “Jama” comes from the word “Jammah” - this is the name of the weekly service that is held at noon every Friday.
Jama Masjid has a very impressive size - its capacity is 25 thousand people. It is a complex of the main building and a high wall surrounding the courtyard, the dimensions of which are 8058 meters by 549 meters. The courtyard can be accessed through one of three gates - South, North and East, a large staircase leads to each gate, and each has a different number of steps, the longest consists of 774 steps and leads to the North gate. The central building has a square shape and is built on a kind of platform 1.5m high. Its roof has 8 domes decorated with white and purple marble stripes. The two three-level minarets of the mosque are 41m high and built of white marble and red sandstone. Each of them has a staircase of 130 steps.
Inside the mosque there are several halls for worshipers. They are decorated with magnificent marble arches. In one of the halls there are slabs of white marble inlaid with inscriptions also made of marble, but already black.
Despite the huge number of tourists visiting it, the mosque is still operational, therefore, before entering it, you must take off your shoes and put on special clothes, and during prayer, people who do not profess Islam are prohibited from entering it.
