Kul Sharif Mosque

INFORMATION FOR VISITORS

When visiting the mosque, women must wear a headscarf and close the bare parts of their bodies (shoulders, knees), and all must turn their phones to silent mode. Photographing worshippers, readers, and anyone in charge of religious ceremonies is strictly prohibited. During religious events, tourists’ access may be restricted.

WORKING HOURS

The Kul Sharif Mosque works daily
from 9:00 to 19:00

The mosque closes weekly on Fridays for Juma Namaz — 11:30–13:30.

The mosque’s walls are coated with white marble, while the dome and minaret tops are painted turquoise. The main building’s façade is decorated with bronze metal inscriptions in Arabic script and portal faces.

OBJECT DESCRIPTION

The Kul Sharif Mosque was under construction from 1996 to 2005 under the supervision of architects A.V. Golovin, A.I. Iskhakov, I.F. Sayfullin, A.H. Sattarov, M.V. Safronov, S.P. Shakurov from Tatinvestgrazhdanproekt company.

The building’s layout consists of two squares superimposed at 45 degrees, forming an octagon. The mosque’s walls are made up of 8 intersecting pointed arches that are framed by Ayats carved in marble (the Quran’s structural unit, verse) and ornamental pigtails.

Tall lancet windows (in the shape of a semicircular arch) with stained glass windows (made of coloured glass) are incorporated into the wall composition. The mosque has an eight-pointed roof, and its central volume is topped by a dome of 36 meters in height and 17 meters in circumference. The dome has tulip-shaped windows pierced through.

The mosque is crowned by four main minarets (towers from which the call to prayer sounds), which are located at the corners of the main volume of the building. The main minarets are 55 meters tall. The mosque also has two small minarets and two semi-minarets at the corners of its main entrance, which serve as architectural decorative elements and emphasise the entrance. Each minaret has a crescent at the top.

The mosque’s walls are coated with white marble, while the dome and minaret tops are painted turquoise. The main building’s façade is decorated with bronze metal inscriptions in Arabic script and portal faces.

The Kul Sharif Mosque consists of five tiers, including ground and technical floors, as well as several auxiliary and technical areas. The ground floor accommodates the Islamic Culture Museum, wardrobes, and ablution rooms. The first tier includes a men’s prayer hall and an imam’s private office, while the second tier includes tourist viewing platforms in the form of balconies and a women’s prayer area.

A variety of unique finishing techniques were used to decorate the building, including 16th-century technology to create ceramic panels and paintings, carved gunch, Roman mosaics, hand-carving of wood and stone, traditional stained-glass windows and coloured glass created through baking, gold embroidery and gilding, and marble and granite façade cladding. Persian carpets cover the parquet floors in both the men’s and women’s halls. Granite, marble in various colours, marble onyx, and serpentine are all natural stone materials used in interior decoration. The marble used to build the mosque was sourced from the Urals, the interior decoration — carpets — was a gift from the Iranian government, and a coloured cut-glass chandelier with a diameter of five meters and a weight of nearly two tonnes was made in the Czech Republic.