On 24 November, 2020 President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov paid a working visit to Balkan velayat to attend the festive opening ceremony for the main mosque of the region.
According to the state information agency TDH, the total space of the complex is over 14 hectares. Each minaret is 63 meters tall and the height of the domes is 40 meters.
The two-storey mosque premises include a prayer room designed to accomodate 3000 people as well as a special building for charity lunches for 1500 seats, a hotel which accommodates 50 guests and a car parking lot.
After opening the mosque, the President prayers and handed over gifts from Mecca as well as a “GAZel” mini truck.
The President hosted a festive charity lunch in the building at the expense of the copyright royalty he had received for his books.
TDH reminds that four new mosques have been opened in Turkmenistan over the past few years: the main mosques of Mary (2009) and Dashoguz (2015) velayats, a mosque in Ashgabat residential district of Parakhat-7 (2018) and the main mosque in Lebap velayat (2020).
It should be emphasized that a 63 year old Gurbanguly Berdymukahmmedov visited Balkan velayat despite the ban for residents aged 50 and older to travel between the regions.The post Berdymukhammedov arrives in Balkan to open the second mosque over the past year first appeared on Chronicles of Turkmenistan.