Çamlıca is a mosque located in Istanbul and since 2019 it is considered the largest mosque in Turkey. The mosque can hold 63,000 people and includes a museum, art gallery, library, conference hall, and underground parking lot for 3,500 vehicles.

Çamlıca Mosque was designed by two female architects, Bahar Mızrak and Hayriye Gül Totu, at a cost of around TL 150 million ($66.5 million). The mosque is one of a number of megaprojects built by the Turkish government to show the strength of the economy and provide a legacy for the governing AK Party. Turkish President Erdoğan said at its inauguration: “When a horse dies it leaves behind its saddle, when a man dies he leaves behind his works. We will be remembered for this.” Turkish analyst Ziya Meral told The Times that “This is about cultural diplomacy and a vision of Turkey’s role in the world.”

The Çamlıca Mosque was inaugurated on 4 May 2019 by Turkish President Erdoğan. Istanbul’s Çamlıca Mosque is be a “female-friendly mosque,” according to its two female architects. The mosque uses “positive discrimination for women,” said Metin Külünk, the construction engineer and president of the mosque’s foundation. There will be a separate place for women to perform ablutions and an elevator to take them to where they can pray. Women will also be able to use a convenient childcare room.

The mosque has an area of 3 hectare in the Üsküdar district of Istanbul, the Çamlıca Mosque also includes a special area for the disabled and a platform from where visitors can observe prayers.

The controversial mosque, which is seen as one of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s signature projects, has been widely criticized for its location atop the green Çamlıca Hill and for being an incredibly large project that does not appear to
fill a need for locals in the area. The project managers have said they want the mosque to be seen from most parts of the city and also say it will have the highest minaret.

The mosque’s design was inspired by Classical Ottoman architecture and the works of Mimar Sinan. The exterior of the mosque has been described as “a huge box attached to a colonnaded courtyard; on top of the box, domes and half-domes swarm around a squat central dome surmounted by a golden, crescent-shaped finial.” The exterior design may be influenced by Sinan but “its use of concrete has relegated Sinan’s structural devices – the dome-clusters, for example, that he used to diffuse the downward thrust of the main dome – to mere ornament.” It was supposedly designed to rival Sinan’s famous Suleymaniye Mosque, across the Bosphorus on the European side of Istanbul.

At 72 metres in height, the main dome of Çamlıca Mosque symbolises the 72 nations residing in Istanbul, Turkey; the dome spanning 34 metres represents the city of Istanbul (34 is the city’s car plate number). The main dome is 3.12 metres wide, 7.77 metres high and weighs 4.5 tons. The mosque’s gates are some of the largest inside a place of worship in the world – the main gate is 5 metres long, 6.5 metres high and weighs 6 tons. The finial of the Çamlıca Mosque – the largest in the world – was coloured using nanotechnology.

Çamlıca Mosque has six minarets which represent the six articles of Islamic faith (iman). Four of the six minarets feature three balconies that stand 107.1 metres high in recognition of the Seljuk Victory at Manzikert in 1071. The other two minarets feature two balconies and are 90 metres high. Four of the minarets are centred around the central dome with the other two on the outer ends of the mosque.

The interior of the mosque was designed with a more minimalist approach. Ergin Külünk, president of the mosque’s construction association, has noted the designers’ use of “light, colour, glass, ornamentation and calligraphy” to make people feel “more spiritual” within the space.