The King Fahd Islamic Cultural Center of Buenos Aires

After three tries, Karen and I finally got to go on the tour of the Islamic Cultural Center of Buenos Aires.  It is only about 6 blocks from where we live.

This is the largest Mosque in Latin America.  The land in Palermo was a given in a grant in 1995 by President Carlos Menem after a trip to Saudi Arabia

The Mosque and Cultural center were designed by Zuhair Faiz, a Saudi architect.  It was inaugurated in 2000 and includes prayer halls with a capacity of 1,200 men and 400 women.

Entry.  Such lovely geometric metalwork over the doors and windows

Announcing Ramadan, a month of fasting during the daylight hours

Beautiful fountain

Looking back outside towards the street and another fountain.

Another banner regarding Ramadan

Open Courtyard near school (on the left) at the center

There is a primary and secondary school, a divinity school and a dormitory for 50 students (currently not in use.

There is a playground in the background beyond the arches.  The building at the back includes housing that originally was designed for students to live on campus, but is currently not used.

Minaret from a distance.

Minaret closeup.  In countries with a large muslam population a call for prayer is broadcast and heard throughout the city from these tours five times a day.  In Argentina it is done within the Cultural Center. 

Our guide, Isa (Jesus in Arabic)

Our guide was very knowledgeable and very willing to answer any and all questions.  In our tour group there were a lot of teenagers and their teachers, so there were a lot of questions.  I think I learned more about Islam and muslams in one hour than I have learned in my studies previously.

We were in the Arabic classroom.  Except for religion and Arabic all the classes offered are the same curriculum as in any other Argentine school.

Days of the week and numbers in Arabic

I loved the Arabic classroom.  Had to take pictures of all the different learning aids.

Animals

Alphabet

More vocabulary

The building is very modern.  Here is a skylight over a staircase.

We were able to go into the main santuary, or prayer hall of the Mosque.  

There are no chairs, except for around the edges

There were several very beautiful chandeliers within the worship area.  Also many copies of the Koran on stands on the floor.

These are the bookstands for the Koran

Around the outer edges there were bookcases of the Koran

Again, Isa answered many questions about Muslam prayer.  There was a man who came in and prayed with the microphone to show how prayer is lead.  The Cantor had a wonderful voice.

I´m never sure if these videos will work.  I tried to make it short this time so it might work.

Each panel of the rug represents a prayer rug and a location for a person to kneel for prayer.  Worshipers are shoulder to shoulder in prayer.  For this reason, men and women pray in separate sections.

One of the copies of the Koran in the worship center

This is a bilingual copy of the Koran in Spanish on the left of the page and Arabic on the right.

Below are some of the pictures and artwork displayed in the Cultural Center.

Here is the website for the Cultural Center:

http://www.ccislamicoreyfahd.org.ar/

Currently tours are on Tuesday, Thursday and sometimes Saturday at noon.  The tours are conducted in Spanish. I really recommend the tour.  It is most informative and the center is beautiful.