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One of the mosques with distinctive features is the national mosque, Baitul Mukarram. It stands in the city centre, with the main stadium to the south, the national sports council building to the east and to the north a road that leads to Shapla square from the National Press Club crossing by. It holds the biggest Friday Muslim congregation of the city.
Aprawling over the largest floor space of the mosque in Dhaka, which is about 60,000 square feet, it was , it was ected in 1960 at the initiative of Haji Latif Bawani.
Founded on a podium, the mosque is modelled on the Kaaba in Mecca, but it ambitiously incorporates the features of Moorish architecture. It has slender tall pillars, horse-shoe arches and patios. The main prayer hall of the mosque is supported by huge columns inside.
Besides serving the purpose of prayer hall, the building houses the offices of Bangladesh Islamic Foundation, a state run agency that disburses and fund for the improvement and maintenance of city's mosques and other religious works and publishes books on affairs related to Islam. The foundation also runs a Quaranic and Arabic teaching centre in the building.
In addition, a big market for electric appliances and jewelleries is adjacent to the mosque and is known after it. Anyone wanting to buy or even repair a wrist watch or avideo cassette player is most likely to enter the market if he or she fails to find thing to his or her taste anywhere in the city.
Besides, the market has other shops including snack bars on its ground floor. Thousands of people visit the place everyday to buy electronic appliance or even for window shopping.
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