Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies, located in Education City, looks like a spaceship to some and like a ski resort to others, but it’s neither. This mysterious looking building is home to a cave-like mosque with alternating swaths of engraved ceiling: one with Quranic verses and one with thousands of tiny lights reminiscent of twinkling stars. The cave-like mosque, with capacity to hold 1,800 people in segregated male and female prayer rooms, seems to float above four streams of water flowing from a garden: an architectural interpretation of paradise. The Mosque is flanked by two 295’-high minarets erected in the direction of Mecca. The mosque was a winner in the 2015 in the World Architecture Festival.
If you visit this building, which you should, it means that you are at Education City—5.5 square miles of nothing but educational facilities from school age to research level and branch campuses of some of the world’s most renowned universities. Drive around the complex and admire the overall architecture of this educational city within a city.
