After taking a wrong turn in industrial Midrand one day, I drove past a large sprawling Mosque standing out amongst the many warehouses, adding a bit of pizazz to an otherwise bland landscape. A bit of research (thanks Wikipedia) revealed this was no other than the Nizamiye Masjid Turkish Mosque – the largest mosque in the Southern Hemisphere (although this hasn’t been proven as yet). The mosque was completed in 2012 (what?? Shows how I often I land up in Midrand). A discovery of a blogpost on the mosque (http://2summers.net/2014/04/17/a-slice-of-istanbul-in-midrand/) said that the mosque allows visitors of the non-Muslim kind to come and have a tour through the mosque and learn more about Islam.
A visit to the mosque was quickly added to the list of places to visit in Johannesburg and off Mary and I went on a sunny June Sunday. When I first drove in I was immediately taken aback with the sheer size of the mosque. The complex includes a few shops, a café, a restaurant, a school and a hospital. I parked (not as many parking bays as you would think the mosque would need), took a few snapshot and met Mary for a coffee before our tour (Mary had tea).
The snapshot of the Mosque from my parking bay – very majestic!
At the café a very friendly waiter informed us a Sunday is very quiet at the Mosque and nobody would be available to take us for a tour. He also kindly offered to take us himself, however we declined as he would have to take off work to do so and we felt uncomfortable about that. So we entered the mosque on our own, our heads and most of our skin respectfully covered.
Some Baklava-like pastries bought at the café. They were as tasty as they look.
We first entered the gallery which showed a lot of prints of mosques around the world which inspired the shape of the mosque. There were some repeat prints which we found confusing.
The entrance of the prayer hall. Really this place is a photographers dream.
We then headed towards the prayer hall and entered with our shoes off. This hall is incredible impressive with the rich colours in everything, from the carpet, the stained glass windows and the tiles on the walls. No one was praying at the time, but this filled with people kneeling in prayer must be an impressive sight. We wandered around in amazement, everything is very opulent and grand, and people must feel privilege to worship here. On the way out, Mary pointed out a few construction flaws that her detail orientated husband would have noticed.
Pretty impressive huh?
The ornate glass windows. Very pretty.
Someone started vacuuming the huge carpeted floor as we exited. I felt incredibly sorry for this person – the expanse of the hall means this would be a time consuming job. Shame.
Here is Mary on the expansive carpet.
Mary and I headed to the restaurant for lunch and we were in for a treat. We both ordered a delicious meal with meat wrapped in pita topped with tomato and yogurt. In addition we had Turkish flat bread (equivalent to pita) with a yoghurt dip (equivalent to tzatziki). I finished the meal with a traditional Turkish coffee (delightful) and a very reasonable bill.
Our delicious meal! Wowza!
The Turskish coffee rounded off our amazing lunch (Mary had a coke).
I encourage everyone to head to the Nizamiye Masjid in Midrand to tour around and experience the delightful Turkish food on offer. I would go at a time where there is someone who can take you for a tour, I assume during the week, as I feel like there is so much more you could learn about the mosque and Islam than through pure observation on your own.
Rating for outing – 9/10.
owningthejourney 