The four minarets
Square towers about 46 metres tall.
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Jordan's state mosque, a vast square of Jordanian stone with a minaret at each corner, on a hilltop above Al Hussein Public Parks in Dabouq, west Amman. King Abdullah II built it in memory of his father, King Hussein bin Talal, and opened it in April 2006; it holds about 5,500 worshippers and was called the country's largest mosque at its opening. The king gave the six-hectare site and paid for the building, designed by the Egyptian architect Khaled Azzam in the Levantine Islamic style, with Umayyad-inspired stone carving. It replaced the King Abdullah I Mosque as the official mosque, and in May 2009 Pope Benedict XVI came here, only the third time a reigning pope had visited a mosque. The square minarets rise about 46 metres, each capped by a dome echoing the main one. The iwan, open on one side under white vaults ten metres high, holds 2,500 worshippers. The walnut and oak mihrab, made by a team from Al-Balqa Applied University, is assembled by interlocking joinery without glue or metal. In 2012 a museum opened in the complex for relics associated with the Prophet Muhammad, among them a hair from his beard and his letter to the Byzantine emperor Heraclius. The Royal Automobile Museum is about half a kilometre away in the same park, an easy pairing, and downtown lies some 11 km east. Neither the mosque nor its museum publishes visiting hours, and gate security decides who enters; non-Muslims should avoid prayer times, especially the Friday midday prayer. Dress modestly; women should cover their hair.
Square towers about 46 metres tall.
White vaults ten metres high.
Walnut and oak, joined without glue.
Al Hussein Public Parks, near King Hussein Medical Center, Dabouq, west Amman
Not as a matter of routine: tour groups have been let in, with hooded robes lent to women, but gate security decides. The King Abdullah I Mosque, by contrast, is open to tourists.
No. The Grand Husseini Mosque downtown was rebuilt in 1924 and named after Sharif Hussein bin Ali; this one bears the name of King Hussein bin Talal and opened in 2006, about 11 km to the west.
