The Conakry Grand Mosque (French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

: Grande mosquée de Conakry / Mosquée Fayçal) is a mosque

Mosque

A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...

 in Conakry

Conakry

Conakry is the capital and largest city of Guinea. Conakry is a port city on the Atlantic Ocean and serves as the economic, financial and cultural centre of Guinea with a 2009 population of 1,548,500...

, Guinea

Guinea

Guinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...

, located north of the Conakry Botanical Garden

Conakry Botanical Garden

Conakry Botanical Garden is a botanical garden in Conakry, Guinea. It is located in the Camayenne part of the city, with the Ambroise Paré Hospital to the south and Conakry Grand Mosque to the north. It is noted for its kapok trees....

. It was built by Ahmed Sékou Touré

Ahmed Sékou Touré

Ahmed Sékou Touré was an African political leader and President of Guinea from 1958 to his death in 1984...

, opening in 1982. It is the largest in West Africa

West Africa

West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...

.
The mosque was built by Sékou Touré with funding from King Fahd

Fahd of Saudi Arabia

Fahd bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, was King of Saudi Arabia from 1982 to 2005...

 of Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

.
It is the largest mosque in West Africa and the fifth in the world after Masjid al-Haram

Masjid al-Haram

Al-Masjid al-Ḥarām is the largest mosque in the world. Located in the city of Mecca, it surrounds the Kaaba, the place which Muslims worldwide turn towards while performing daily prayers and is Islam's holiest place...

 in Mecca

Mecca

Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...

, Al-Masjid al-Nabawi

Al-Masjid al-Nabawi

Al-Masjid al-Nabawi , often called the Prophet's Mosque, is a mosque situated in the city of Medina. As the final resting place of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, it is considered the second holiest site in Islam by Muslims and is one of the largest mosques in the world...

 in Medina

Medina

Medina , or ; also transliterated as Madinah, or madinat al-nabi "the city of the prophet") is a city in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia, and serves as the capital of the Al Madinah Province. It is the second holiest city in Islam, and the burial place of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, and...

, Al-Aqsa Mosque

Al-Aqsa Mosque

Al-Aqsa Mosque also known as al-Aqsa, is the third holiest site in Sunni Islam and is located in the Old City of Jerusalem...

 in Jerusalem and Hassan II Mosque

Hassan II Mosque

The Hassan II Mosque is a religious building in Casablanca, Morocco. It is the largest mosque in the country and the 7th largest mosque in the world. Its minaret is the world's tallest at .It stands on a promontory looking out to the Atlantic...

 in Casablanca.
Its four minarets, covered in green tiles (the color of Islam) can be seen from far away.
The mosque is located beside the Donka Hospital

Donka Hospital

The Donka Hospital is a publicly owned hospital in Conakry, Guinea. It has inadequate facilities to handle demand, and many Guineans cannot afford its service...

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Women must cover themselves from head to foot before they can enter.
The mosque has 2,500 places on the upper level for women and 10,000 below for men.
The gardens of the mosque contain the Camayanne Mausoleum, including Samouri Touré, Sékou Touré and Alpha Yaya.

On 28 September 2009 a demonstration against the military junta at a city stadium was violently suppressed by security forces, with hundreds of deaths and dozens of injuries.
On Friday 2 October the bodies of 508 victims were laid in the esplanade in front of the mosque.
A large body of prostitutes were present, and people started throwing stones at them. The police responded with tear gas, which flooded the interior of the mosque.