Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has ordered that work on the new expansion project for the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah should start immediately so that it is completed in less than two years.
The king stressed the significance of completing the project at the earliest considering the greatness of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf said.
The mosque building will cover an area of 614,800 square meters while the combined space of the mosque and plazas will be 1,020,500 square meters following the new expansion, the largest in history.
“The mosque will accommodate one million worshippers inside and 800,000 worshippers in the plaza,” Al-Assaf said, shedding more light on the new project for which the king laid the foundation stone.
Once completed the mosque will have two big minarets besides smaller ones. The Central Zone surrounding the mosque will triple in size compared to the present area with more space for residences and shopping areas.
Twenty-three hotels will be removed from the Central Zone for the project while 21 new hotel projects would be completed this year to make up for the shortfall in hotel rooms.
The Central Zone will undergo near total reconstruction including the expansion of existing utilities. The mosque’s plazas in the eastern and the western sides will undergo further development. The buildings surrounding the plazas will be built matching the urban development and in line with the rich Islamic cultural history of Madinah.
