Aktobe Central mosque

The Central Mosque in Aktobe, Kazakhstan, stands on the site of a historical mosque built in 1903. Closed during the Soviet era, when its minaret was demolished, the mosque reopened to worshippers in the 1990s. As the congregation in the surrounding residential district grew, part of the original building was preserved and incorporated into an expanded structure, completed in 2012. The mosque now has two storeys and a basement: the ground floor holds a prayer hall for about 700 men and a hall used for wedding ceremonies, while the upper floor houses the women's prayer hall and the imam's office.