Famed Mosul mosque set to reopen this year
Mosul’s Al Nuri Mosque, destroyed by ISIS in 2017, will reopen by the end of the year as part of a UN effort to restore religious sites in Iraq, the project’s manager has said.
The mosque, known for its leaning minaret, was the site where ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi proclaimed a “caliphate” in 2014.
The group destroyed the mosque three years later during a nine-month battle with government forces that ended the extremists’ occupation of Mosul.
“Our aim is to complete the entire Al Nuri Mosque, including the minaret, by late autumn this year,” Maria Rita Acetoso, Unesco’s senior project manager in Iraq, told The National.
The restoration team, which began work in 2018, has now “completed basically the structural part of the mosque and minaret”, she said.
“We have completed the consolidation of the dome. Now, what we are doing is working in parallel on the prayer hall and on the prayer area,” she said.
To ensure that the bricks used during the reconstruction have the same dimensions, thickness and patterns as the originals, Unesco used “suitable brick producers who could source the bricks we wanted based on the mechanical characteristics of the original ones we sent to the lab of the University of Mosul for testing”, Ms Acetoso said.
Unesco’s project, called Revive the Spirit of Mosul, has provided 3,000 jobs for the city’s residents.
The UAE donated $50 million to restore the mosque as part of the country’s efforts to support the reconstruction of areas devastated by ISIS.
The Emirates also funded the reconstruction of two churches in Mosul, Al Saa’a and Al Tahera.
Mosul and the surrounding plains of Nineveh province were once home to one of the region’s oldest Christian communities.
Iraq’s Christian population has shrunk from about 1.5 million before the 2003 USled invasion that toppled the dictator Saddam Hussein, to fewer than 400,000.
Nineveh province was left in ruins after three years of ISIS occupation, which ended in 2017 when Baghdad’s forces, supported from the air by the US-led coalition, pushed the extremist group out.
The reconstruction of Al Saa’a has finished, and the church held its first mass in January.
Built towards the end of the 19th century by Catholic priests of the Dominican order, the church is considered a significant part of Mosul’s architectural history and heritage, as well as a symbol of coexistence in Iraq.
“The official handover is not yet known, we are just waiting for the provincial order to confirm when the focal point, which is currently not deployed in Iraq, can actually travel so that we can get the keys back to the Dominican order,” Ms Acetoso said.
The reconstruction of Al Tahera church, which was built in the mid-19th century, has reached its final stage and is due to be completed by June this year, she added.