While visiting victory park, I noticed the tall white minarets of the mosque and decided to visit. The Borborduk Mosque has been an ongoing construction project in Bishkek for over five years. It is meant to be the Central Mosque of Bishkek when complete. The Turkey Diyanet Foundation, which is comprised of Turkish and Jordanian investors, had a vision of building the largest mosque in Central Asia. It is said to have a capacity of 20,000 worshipers on the mosque grounds. The biggest mosque in Central Asia is currently the Hazrat Sultan Mosque in Astana, which we also visited on our trip.
It is said that the design of the mosque, was based on Istanbul’s Sultan Ahmed (Blue) Mosque.The mosque is more of an Ottoman design than the traditional Bishkek Mosques which tend to have a single dome. This mosque, has multiple domes, and four minarets, each 70 meters in height. The total area of the mosque is 7,500 meters, with the tallest interior section being 37 meters. I was unable to enter the mosque, as the gate was closed. I found this strange as mosques usually open very early in the morning, and I wondered if the construction was completed.
We had also visited Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and seen a mosque also sponsored by the Turkish Group that was very similar. The bigger mosques perform the function of accommodating more worshipers, but we preferred the smaller and more intimate mosques that we had seen in Bishkek.Another mosque that is within walking distance, is the Makhmuda Kashgari Mosque, which is at the Eastern end of Frunze Street, a 15 minute walk. The nearest attraction to this mosque is Victory Park.
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