Saudi Arabia King Orders New Expansion Of Prophet’s Mosque

[Arabian Legend]

Saudi Arabia King Orders New Expansion Of Prophet’s Mosque

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has ordered an expansion of the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah to accommodate more than 1.6 million worshippers, Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf announced yesterday.

“The new expansion of the Prophet’s Mosque is part of King Abdullah’s efforts in the service of Islam and Muslims, the latest of which was the unprecedented expansion of the Grand Mosque in Makkah,” he said.

Al-Assaf said the expansion of the Prophet’s Mosque would extend a great service to the pilgrims and visitors who will be able to pray comfortably in the mosque and the surrounding plaza.

He said King Abdullah’s Expansion Project of the Prophet’s Mosque would be implemented in three phases. “The first phase will accommodate more than 800,000 worshippers while the second and third will accommodate an equal number of worshippers bringing the total number of people the mosque can accommodate at a gvien time to more than 1.6 million,” he said.

The minister said the new expansion of the Prophet’s Mosque would complete the other projects that the king has ordered for the welfare and comfort of the pilgrims and visitors. He recalled in this connection the ongoing expansion of the Grand Mosque in Makkah, the expansion of the Massa (pathway between Safa and Marwa), increasing the area of the Jamarat bridge, the Makkah Development Plan, the Haramain Express Train, the Makkah Gate and the new King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah.

The Prophet’s Mosque has been expanded twice. The first one was mooted during the time of King Abdul Aziz, the Kingdom’s founder, in 1949. Work on the expansion started in July 1951 and took nine years to complete. The second one, called after Custodian of the Two Holy Mosque King Fahd, started in 1984 and was completed in 1994.

During the first expansion of the Prophet’s Mosque, four minarets were added in addition to 18 ordinary staircases. During King Fahd’s rule, six new minarets were added to bring their total number to 10 and six electric staircases were established raising the number of staircases to 24.

The ground floor of the mosque has an area of 98,500 sq. meters accommodating 167,000 worshippers, the roof has an area of 67,000 sq. meters accommodating 90,000 worshippers and the surrounding plaza has a total area of 235,000 sq. meters accommodating 450,000 worshippers.

The total area of the mosque and its plaza is 400,500 sq. meters accommodating 707,00 worshippers but at the peak time as many as a million worshippers could be in the mosque at one time.

 

[Arabian Legend]

 

[Rusty]

hopefully this time they will use more contemporary Islamic architecture. I Want to know I am in Media, not Monaco.

 

[Ottoman-Turk]

what was the ottoman parts of the mosque that might have been getting destroyed to extend it

 

[VelocuR]

It is horrible, two expansion of Makkah and Medinah are becoming NYC city with too many crowds.

 

[get straight]

the hotels must have been situated outside far from the premises of khana e baba and prophet's tomb, but its such a deplorable act to build sky scrappers there

 

[Mosamania]

Seeing the comments it appears people don't know what do they want?? These Expansions are mainly to allow the accommodation of more Pilgrims and for raising the quota each country gets.

So for instance these expansions will allow to bring more than Double the number of Pakistani pilgrims permits than now giving more people a chance to do their rights.

So you ask yourself are those expansions good or bad??

 

[Hyde]

By the designs I feel there is not going to be a big change to the Mosque of the Prophet but the area surrounding it... more skyscrapers will be built around the Mosque and already the entire area is filled with tall buildings so may be just an expansion to that...

About the Prophet's Mosque I noticed there will be some extension in front of the Green Dome but site near the main entrance (on the back side of Green Dome) looks in tact. I could be wrong though

 

[Edevelop]

Old architecture were great. Saudis should not have destroyed it. Last i heard, the imam mufti wants to demolish every last thing that is part of the prophet's i.e. house, grave, etc.... to build skyscrapers and other irrelevant things....

 

[Arabian Legend]

the expansion of the mosque will occur as shown below. all the other building are parts of the project and have nothing to do with expansion of the mosque. sounds like many people have failed to read the article. i quote :


Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has ordered an expansion of the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah to accommodate more than 1.6 million worshippers, Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf announced yesterday.



He said King Abdullah’s Expansion Project of the Prophet’s Mosque would be implemented in three phases. “The first phase will accommodate more than 800,000 worshippers while the second and third will accommodate an equal number of worshippers bringing the total number of people the mosque can accommodate at a gvien time to more than 1.6 million,” he said.



The ground floor of the mosque has an area of 98,500 sq. meters accommodating 167,000 worshippers, the roof has an area of 67,000 sq. meters accommodating 90,000 worshippers and the surrounding plaza has a total area of 235,000 sq. meters accommodating 450,000 worshippers.

The total area of the mosque and its plaza is 400,500 sq. meters accommodating 707,00 worshippers but at the peak time as many as a million worshippers could be in the mosque at one time.

 

[Rusty]

Personally, I am all for modernization of the city, however no historic parts of the mosque should be destroyed and all new architecture should be in an Islamic tradition.

 

[Arabian Legend]

Personally, I am all for modernization of the city, however no historic parts of the mosque should be destroyed and all new architecture should be in an Islamic tradition.

No part of the mosque got removed or destroyed.

 

[Al Bhatti]

the hotels must have been situated outside far from the premises of khana e baba and prophet's tomb, but its such a deplorable act to build sky scrappers there

If they are built far from the ka'ba, then given the annual increase in the number of pilgrims, it will be a big headache for the movement of the pilgrims to and form the ka'aba.

Same goes for the Prophet's Mosque.

By the way it is said that the current Prophet's mosque already accommodates the whole of Medina city at the time of the prophet (i mean the city center and the parts which were inhabited). In other words the current Prophet's mosque is many times larger than the inhabited city at that time.

 

[Rusty]

No part of the mosque got removed or destroyed.



No part of the mosque got removed or destroyed.

Oh, in that case I take it back.

Honestly tho, I think both Mecca and Madina could use some kind of light rail, trolley system so people who live far away have an easier time getting to the mosques.

 

[Edevelop]

No part of the mosque got removed or destroyed.

oh so what is this?

[/IMG]

allow me to do show you the same for madina as well..