buckingham palace

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Buckingham Palace is the London home and primary residence of the British monarch.^[1] Located in the City of Westminster, thepalace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality. It has been a focus for the British people at times of national rejoicing and crisis.

Originally known as Buckingham House, the building which forms the core of today's palace was a large townhouse built for the Duke of Buckingham in 1705 on a site which had been in private ownership for at least 150 years. It was subsequently acquired by George IIIin 1761^[2] as a private residence for Queen Charlotte, and known as "The Queen's House". During the 19th century it was enlarged, principally by architects John

Nash and Edward Blore, forming three wings around a central courtyard. Buckingham Palace finally became the official royal palace of the British monarch on the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837. The last major structural additions were made in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including the East front which contains the well-known balcony on which the Royal Family traditionally congregate to greet crowds outside. However, the palace chapel was destroyed by a German bomb in World War II; the Queen's Gallery was built on the site and opened to the public in 1962 to exhibit works of art from the Royal Collection.

The original early 19th-century interior designs, many of which still survive, included widespread use of brightly coloured scagliola and blue and pink lapis, on the advice of Sir Charles Long. King Edward VII oversaw a partial redecoration in a Belle Époque cream and gold colour scheme. Many smaller reception rooms are furnished in the Chinese regency style with furniture and fittings brought from theRoyal Pavilion at Brighton and from Carlton House. The Buckingham Palace Garden is the largest private garden in London.

The state rooms, used for official and state entertaining, are open to the public each year for most of August and September, as part of the Palace's Summer Opening. The palace is sometimes colloquially referred to as Buck House.

Faisal Mosque

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The Faisal Mosque in Islamabad is the largest mosque in Pakistan and South Asia and one of the largest mosques in the world. It was the largest mosque in the world from 1986 until 1993, when it was overtaken in size by the completion of the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, Morocco. Subsequent expansions of the Masjid al-Haram (Grand Mosque) of Mecca and the Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (Prophet's Mosque) in Medina, Saudi Arabiaduring the 1990s relegated Faisal Mosque to fourth place in terms of size.

The impetus for the mosque began in 1966 when the late King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia supported the initiative of the Pakistani Government to build a national mosque in Islamabad during an official visit to Pakistan. In 1969, an international competition was held in which architects from 17 countries submitted 43 proposals. After four days of deliberation, Turkish architect Vedat Dalokay's design was chosen. Construction of the mosque began in 1976 by National Construction of Pakistan, led by Azim Khan and was funded by the government of Saudi Arabia, at a cost of over 130 million Saudi riyals (approximately 120 million USD today). King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz was instrumental in the funding, and both the mosque and the road leading to it were named after him after his assassination in 1975. The mosque was completed in 1986, and used to house the International Islamic University. Many conservative Muslims criticised the design at first for its non-conventional design and lack of the traditionaldome structure, but virtually all criticism was eventually silenced by the mosque's scale, form, and setting against the Margalla Hills upon completion.

The Faisal Mosque is the work of famous Turkish architect, Vedat Dalokay who won the Aga Khan Architectural Award with this project. The mosque's relatively unusual design fuses contemporary lines with the more traditional look of an Arab Bedouin's tent, with its large triangular prayer hall and fourminarets. However, unlike traditional masjid design, it lacks a dome. The minarets borrow their design from Turkish tradition and are thin and pencil like. The interior of this prayer hall holds a very large chandelier and its walls are decorated with mosaics and calligraphy by the famous Pakistani artist Sadequain. The mosaic pattern adorns the west wall, and has the kalimah writtern in early Kufic script, repeated in mirror image pattern.

The mosque's architecture is a departure from the long history of South Asian Islamic architecture. It is one of the most outstanding and modern Islamic architecture examples in the world.

Abraj Al Bait Towers

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 he Abraj Al-Bait Towers also known as the "Mecca Royal Clock Hotel Tower" is a complex under construction in Makkah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The building holds and will break several world records in the construction world, including: the tallest hotel in the world, constructed with the tallest clock tower in the world and displaying the world's largest clock face,^[1] the world's largest building floor area, and will become the second tallest building in the world upon completion, surpassed only by Dubai's Burj Khalifa. The building complex is meters away from the world's largest mosque andIslam's most sacred site, the Masjid al Haram.

Upon completion, the tallest tower in the complex would stand as the tallest building in Saudi Arabia, and the tallest and largest hotel in the world, with a planned height of 601 metres (1,972 feet). It is the fourth tallest building under construction. Upon completion, the structure would have the largest floor area of any structure in the world with 1,500,000 m² (16,150,000 sq ft) of floorspace. This is the same as Terminal 3 at Dubai International Airport, in theUnited Arab Emirates which is also under construction. It will also surpass the Emirates Park Towers in Dubai as the world's tallest hotel.

The site of the complex is located across the street to the south from an entrance to the Masjid al Haram mosque, which houses the Kaaba. In order to start construction, the historic Ottoman Ajyad Fortress had to be first completely demolished. To accommodate worshipers visiting the Kaaba, the Abraj Al-Bait Towers will have a large prayer room capable of holding nearly ten thousand people. The tallest tower in the complex will also contain a seven-star hotel to help provide lodging for the over five million pilgrims who travel to Mecca annually to participate in hajj.

Hassan II Mosque - مسجد الحسن الثاني

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The Hassan II Mosque (Arabic: مسجد الحسن الثاني‎) is a religious buildings in Casablanca, Morocco, the largest mosque in the country and the fifth largest mosque in the world after the Masjid al-Haram (Grand Mosque) of Mecca and the Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (Prophet's Mosque) in Medina. It was designed by the French architect Michel Pinseau and built by Bouygues.^[1] It stands on a promontory looking out to the Atlantic, which can be seen through a gigantic glass floor with room for 25,000 worshippers. A further 80,000 can be accommodated in the mosque's adjoining grounds for a total of 105,000 worshippers present at any given time at the Hassan II mosque. Its minaret is the world's tallest at 210 m (689 ft).