Egypt’s New Administrative Capital to Host Its First Quranic Program
It said a number of top qaris will take part in the Quranic program, which is slated for Tuesday at the Islamic Cultural Center of Egypt (Egypt Mosque) located in the center of the NAC, Mustaqbal Watan News reported.
The ministry added that the top qaris attending the event will recite the Surahs of the 30th Juz (part) of the Holy Quran.
Egypt Mosque, which was built at a cost of more than 800 million Egyptian pounds by the “Arab Contractors” company and under the supervision of the Armed Forces Engineering Board, is the largest mosque in this country and the second largest in Africa.
The government has been building the new city in the desert to try to move people away from heavily-congested Cairo.
The New Administrative Capital of Egypt has been purpose-built 45km (28 miles) east of Cairo.
Its new Islamic Cultural Center, which also includes the Grand Mosque, covers more than 19,000 sq meter and is capable of hosting 107,000 worshippers.
But the unveiling of the new center and mosque was criticized on social media.
It comes at a time when Egypt has been fighting soaring prices, with inflation running at just over 30% in March.
State media celebrated the mosque for breaking three world records - including the highest pulpit in the world, standing at 16.6m (54.5ft) and handcrafted from the finest types of wood.
The second and third were for the main chandelier of the mosque, which is the heaviest in the world at 24,300kg (53,572lb), and the largest, with a diameter of 22m (72.2ft) and comprising four levels.
The opening event was attended by President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, with state media describing it as showing Egypt's "grandiosity".
But on social media there was severe criticism.
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