Within the municipality of Al Rayyan on the western edge of Doha in the State of Qatar, the twelve-square-kilometer academic campus of Education City (spearheaded by the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development) brings together world-renowned universities, research institutes, and bold contemporary architecture. Rising at the geographic and intellectual heart of this campus is the Education City Mosque, officially named the Minaretein Center (Arabic for The Two Minarets). Departing dramatically from conventional hemispherical domes and vertical towers, the gleaming white stone-and-ceramic structure appears to float above reflecting pools on five colossal columns, while two slender minarets soar 90 meters into the sky at a dynamic 65-degree angle pointing straight toward the Kaaba in Mecca.
Inaugurated in March 2015 to the design of Mangera Yvars Architects (led by Ali Mangera and Ada Yvars Bravo) in collaboration with Iraqi architect and calligrapher Taha Al-Hiti and structural engineers BuroHappold, the building was named the World's Best Religion Building at the 2015 World Architecture Festival (WAF). Whereas the Imam Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab Mosque (Qatar State Grand Mosque) celebrates traditional Qatari sandstone fortress forms and the Katara Mosque, Doha pays homage to classical Persian and Ottoman ceramic mosaic artistry, the Education City Mosque articulates a forward-looking vision of Islam in the twenty-first century, seamlessly uniting university lecture halls and a congregational sanctuary in the classical conviction that Faith (Iman) and Knowledge (Ilm) are inseparable.
IThe Kulliyya Ideal of Uniting Faith and Knowledge, the Five Pillars of Islam, and the Astronomical Bearing of the Twin Minarets
In accordance with the pure monotheism (Tawhid) of Islam, the Education City Mosque contains no figurative imagery or icons; it is consecrated solely to the worship of One Almighty God (Allah). Yet the architectural concept that gives the Minaretein Center its distinctive soul is the revival of the classical Islamic institution of the Kulliyya: derived from the Arabic root Kull (meaning the Whole or All-Encompassing), a Kulliyya signifies a place where all branches of human knowledge and spiritual understanding are sought under one roof.
Rooted in the Quranic revelation (whose very first revealed word in Surah Al-Alaq 96:1 is the divine imperative Iqra!, meaning Read!) and the prophetic tradition honoring the pursuit of knowledge as a sacred duty for every believer, the building rejects any artificial divide between academic inquiry and spiritual devotion. Arranged as an interlocking double spiral, the western wing houses the classrooms, faculty offices, auditoriums, and circular library of the College of Islamic Studies (CIS) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), which then spirals upward and eastward to culminate directly in the grand congregational mosque.
The structural engineering of the Education City Mosque translates core Islamic doctrine into monumental three-dimensional form. Rather than resting flat upon the desert ground, the entire spherical prayer hall is elevated high in the air upon five colossal inclined concrete-and-steel columns representing the Five Pillars of Islam (Arkan Al-Islam). Each structural pier rises from tranquil water basins and bears in bold relief an Arabic calligraphic inscription from the Quran corresponding to its specific pillar:
The first pillar is inscribed with verses on Shahada (the declaration of faith in the Oneness of God); the second pillar bears verses on Salah (the five daily ritual prayers); the third pillar carries verses on Zakat (almsgiving and social justice for the poor); the fourth pillar features verses on Sawm (fasting and self-restraint during the month of Ramadan); and the fifth pillar displays verses on Hajj (the pilgrimage to Mecca). As students and worshippers walk through the shaded undercroft beneath these five mighty columns to ascend the grand staircase into the prayer hall, they physically pass through the foundational teachings of their faith.
Commissioned by the Qatar Foundation under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, the project (originally developed as the Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies, QFIS) was conceived to provide an intellectual and spiritual anchor for Education City. Following an international design competition, the commission was awarded to Mangera Yvars Architects (based in London and Barcelona, led by British-South African architect Ali Mangera and Spanish architect Ada Yvars Bravo) working with structural engineers BuroHappold.
To weave Quranic scripture directly into the skin of the 35,800-square-meter complex, the architects collaborated with Iraqi architect and master calligrapher Taha Al-Hiti, who developed an original angular Kufic-inspired calligraphic script wrapping around the facade panels, interior ceiling ribs, and the 90-meter minarets. Following several years of precision engineering, the building was officially inaugurated by Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser in March 2015 and welcomed its first Friday congregational prayer (Jumu'ah) in April 2015.
Visitors seeing the twin 90-meter minarets (Minaretein) of the Education City Mosque leaning skyward at a dramatic 65-degree angle instead of standing vertically often assume the tilt is purely a futuristic sculptural gesture. In fact, the inclination serves a precise astronomical and liturgical purpose: the two sweeping white arcs are aligned along the exact geodesic azimuth from Al Rayyan pointing westward toward the Kaaba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Consequently, anyone walking anywhere across the vast campuses of Education City can simply look up at the direction in which the twin minarets point to know the exact Qibla direction for prayer, while the Quranic verses ascending the towers draw the viewer's gaze from earth toward heaven.
IIFrom Qatar Foundation's Vision for Education City to Winning the World's Best Religion Building Award in 2015
Though completed in the early twenty-first century, the Education City Mosque (Minaretein Center) has already secured a landmark place in the architectural history of the Arabian Gulf, demonstrating how contemporary engineering can express timeless sacred meaning without merely copying historical domes.
- 1995 to 2007Founding of Qatar Foundation and establishment of the Faculty of Islamic StudiesEmir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser establish Qatar Foundation in 1995; in 2007 the Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies (QFIS) is created as a center for graduate scholarship and dialogue.
- 2008 to 2010Mangera Yvars Architects selected to design the Kulliyya and Education City MosqueArchitects Ali Mangera and Ada Yvars Bravo, collaborating with calligrapher Taha Al-Hiti and BuroHappold engineers, develop the spiral Kulliyya plan supported on five monumental pillars.
- 2010 to Early 2015Construction of the five structural pillars, 90-meter angled minarets, and Quranic gardensEngineers erect the complex post-tensioned concrete minarets leaning at 65 degrees, clad the undulating shell in white ceramic and calligraphic relief panels, and plant the surrounding Quranic Botanic Garden.
- March and April 2015Official inauguration by Sheikha Moza bint Nasser and first Friday Jumu'ah prayerHer Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser inaugurates the building in March 2015; on April 17, 2015, the mosque hosts its inaugural Friday congregational prayer.
- November 2015 and 2016Winner of the World Architecture Festival (WAF) Best Religion Building Award and RIBA AwardAt the 2015 World Architecture Festival in Singapore, the building wins the Religion category over global finalists and subsequently receives the RIBA International Award.
- 2017 to PresentFormal designation as the Minaretein Center and global hub of Hamad Bin Khalifa UniversityFormally named the Minaretein Center, the complex serves as home to the College of Islamic Studies at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) and welcomes tens of thousands of visitors annually.
Critical acclaim at the 2015 World Architecture Festival and the surrounding Quranic Botanic Garden. When the international jury of the World Architecture Festival named the Education City Mosque the World's Best Religion Building in November 2015, the panel praised the way the structure integrates a place of learning and a place of worship into a single poetic continuum where light, water, and calligraphy guide the human spirit.
Extending seamlessly beneath and around the building is the Quranic Botanic Garden (Bustan), an educational and ecological sanctuary cultivating more than fifty species of trees, shrubs, and medicinal herbs mentioned directly in the Quran and the Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad, including date palms (Nakhl), olive trees (Zaytun), pomegranates (Rumman), figs (Tin), desertChrist's-thorn jujube trees (Sidr), ginger, sweet basil, and aloe.
IIIThe Five Structural Pillars, the 90-Meter Angled Twin Minarets, the Swirling Calligraphic Vault, and the Four Rivers of Paradise
Encompassing approximately 35,800 square meters at the center of the Education City campus in Al Rayyan, the Minaretein Center (Education City Mosque) is organized as two ribbon-like spirals wrapping around an internal courtyard: the western wing houses the academic halls of the College of Islamic Studies, while the eastern wing swells upward into the elliptical congregational prayer hall seating 1,800 worshippers indoors and 1,000 in the exterior courtyard.
Supporting the elevated prayer hall above a tranquil reflecting pool are five massive inclined concrete-and-steel structural piers representing the Five Pillars of Islam (Shahada, Salah, Zakat, Sawm, and Hajj). Clad in white relief panels embossed with the corresponding Quranic verses for each pillar, these columns shade the pedestrian plaza below while physically and symbolically upholding the house of prayer.
Replacing vertical masonry towers, the twin minarets (Minaretein) are sculpted as two soaring white structural blades reaching 90 meters in height at a 65-degree angle aimed directly westward toward Mecca. Linking the twin blades are steel cross-braces and gilded Arabic calligraphic panels that gleam in the desert sunlight and glow like beacons across Al Rayyan by night.
Inside the 1,800-seat main prayer hall (Musalla), the ceiling rises as a series of concentric, undulating white ribs that spiral upward like celestial orbits. Cast into the curving bands of the vault are monumental verses from the Quran designed by Taha Al-Hiti, perforated by hundreds of star-like glazed apertures that filter soft daylight across the silver-and-cream prayer carpets below.
Centered on the western Qibla wall is a sculptural golden Mihrab arch bathed in natural light filtering from above and overlooking the water garden outside. Beside it stands a sleek, contemporary stepped Minbar pulpit from which the Imam delivers the Friday sermon, accompanied by curved rows of custom-woven wool carpets aligned toward Mecca.
Sweeping above the main floor is a spacious, light-filled upper mezzanine gallery reserved for female worshippers, offering an unobstructed view of the calligraphic vault and golden Mihrab. In the opposite wing of the spiral complex rises the cylindrical Islamic Studies Library, housing over 100,000 volumes beneath a dramatic central skylight.
Flowing from the four corners of the surrounding landscape toward the central pool beneath the mosque are four symbolic water channels inspired by the Quranic description of Paradise (Surah Muhammad 47:15), which speaks of four rivers of incorruptible water, milk, honey, and pure wine. Framed by olive, fig, pomegranate, and sidr trees, these water channels cool the courtyard air through natural evaporation.
| Architectural Element or Space | Technical Scale and Materials | Theological Symbolism and Function |
|---|---|---|
| Five Structural Pillars | 5 colossal inclined concrete-and-steel piers rising from water basins | Embody the Five Pillars of Islam (Shahada, Salah, Zakat, Sawm, Hajj) with embossed Quranic verses |
| Twin Angled Minarets (Minaretein) | 90 m tall, inclined at 65 degrees westward with gilded calligraphy | Visually point the exact Qibla bearing toward the Kaaba in Mecca across Education City |
| Main Prayer Hall and Courtyard (Musalla & Sahn) | 1,800 indoor seats and 1,000 courtyard places; star-lit calligraphic vault | Hosts the five daily prayers, Friday Jumu'ah congregation, and Ramadan nightly prayers |
| Four Water Channels and Quranic Garden | 4 water streams converging into the central pool amid 50+ Quranic plant species | Symbolize the four rivers of Paradise (Jannah) and cool the desert microclimate |
| Academic Spiral and Circular Library (Kulliyya) | 35,800 sq m total complex; multi-story cylindrical library for 100,000 books | Home of the College of Islamic Studies (HBKU), uniting academic scholarship and worship |
IVThe Lie of the Land and the Facing
It should be stated clearly that Qatar Foundation and the architects of Mangera Yvars Architects did not employ East Asian geomancy (feng shui) in siting or designing the Education City Mosque. The building's placement follows the master plan of Education City and strictly adheres to Islamic geodesic Qibla alignment toward Mecca. The observations below provide a comparative landform reading through the traditional geomantic framework of the Hall of Myriad Paths library.
Viewed within the macro-topography of Al Rayyan Municipality just west of Doha at coordinates 25.3144 degrees north, 51.4392 degrees east, the Education City campus occupies a broad, stable inland limestone plain rising roughly 22 to 25 meters above sea level along the historic corridor linking Doha Bay to western Qatar. Within the master plan of Education City (surrounded by the Qatar National Library, Oxygen Park, and international university faculties), the Minaretein Center sits at the central pivot (the heart of the academic city), anchoring the surrounding institutions around a shared spiritual and intellectual core.
In terms of watercourse design and celestial orientation, in an arid desert landscape the architects created a remarkable four-waters-returning-to-the-hall configuration by channeling four streams from the four cardinal corners of the site into the tranquil reflecting pool directly beneath the five pillars of the prayer hall. From Al Rayyan's coordinates, the Kaaba in Mecca lies almost due West (west-southwest at an azimuth of roughly 252 degrees). Thus the entire prayer hall and the twin 90-meter Minaretein project along an east-northeast to west-southwest axis, gathering the morning light from the direction of the Arabian Gulf in the east while pointing unerringly toward the sacred sanctuary of Mecca in the west.
VAcademic Friday Jumu'ah Congregations, Ramadan Nightly Vigils, and Global Interfaith Dialogues at Minaretein
Liturgical life at the Education City Mosque (Minaretein) follows both the daily solar prayer cycle and the Islamic lunar calendar (the twelve-month Hijri calendar), enriched by the international academic calendar of Hamad Bin Khalifa University and Qatar Foundation.
| Time of Observance | Calendar System | Liturgical Prayer, Festival, or Academic Event | Rites and Programs at the Education City Mosque (Minaretein) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Five times daily (Fajr, Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib, Isha) | Daily solar cycle | The Five Obligatory Daily Prayers (Salawat Al-Khams) | Professors, students from over 60 nationalities across Education City, and Al Rayyan residents cross the water bridges beneath the five pillars to pray in the circular Musalla. |
| Every Friday at midday | Weekly | Friday Congregational Prayer (Salat Al-Jumu'ah) with Multilingual Interpretation | Nearly 3,000 worshippers fill the main hall and courtyard; the Friday Khutbah sermon is delivered in Arabic with live simultaneous translation into English and sign-language interpretation. |
| Ninth month of the Islamic calendar (Ramadan) | Islamic Lunar (Hijri) | Holy Month of Ramadan, Nightly Taraweeh Prayers, and Qiyam Al-Layl Vigils | Thousands gather nightly beneath the illuminated 90-meter minarets for Taraweeh and late-night Qiyam prayers during the final ten nights of Ramadan, paired with nightly ethical lectures. |
| 1st of Shawwal and 10th of Dhu Al-Hijjah | Islamic Lunar (Hijri) | Festivals of Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha at Education City | Morning Eid prayers celebrated inside the mosque and adjacent Education City Stadium, followed by Qatar Foundation community festivals and charity drives. |
| Academic Year (September through May) | Gregorian | International Symposia on Islamic Ethics, Art, and Interfaith Dialogue | The College of Islamic Studies (HBKU) and Minaretein Center host public lectures, exhibitions of contemporary calligraphy, and guided architectural tours. |
A model of inclusive accessibility for women, international students, and the hearing-impaired. In keeping with Qatar Foundation's commitment to community inclusion, the Education City Mosque is celebrated across the Gulf for its welcoming design. The elevated women's prayer gallery enjoys sweeping views of the calligraphic dome and golden Mihrab, while every Friday sermon (Khutbah) and Ramadan lecture series features live English headsets for non-Arabic-speaking university students and foreign visitors as well as dedicated sign-language interpretation for deaf worshippers.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- Education City Campus (Qatar Foundation), Al Luqta Street, Al Rayyan Municipality (West of Doha), State of Qatar
- Getting there
- The Education City Mosque (Minaretein Center) is located in the southern sector of the Education City campus (accessible via Al Luqta Street) in Al Rayyan Municipality, approximately 12 kilometers west of the Doha Corniche. The fastest and most convenient public transport route is to take the Doha Metro Green Line directly to Education City Station; from the metro station, visitors can walk 7 to 10 minutes through the landscaped campus or ride the free air-conditioned Education City Tram (Blue Line) directly to the Minaretein stop in front of the building.
- Coordinates
- 25.3144, 51.4392
The Education City Mosque (Minaretein Center) welcomes non-Muslim visitors and architecture enthusiasts free of charge throughout the week outside active prayer times (note that Friday midday from 11:00 AM to 1:30 PM is reserved for the weekly Jumu'ah congregation). Visitors must remove their shoes before entering the carpeted prayer hall and maintain quiet respect. Modest attire covering shoulders, arms, and legs down to the ankles is required for both men and women; complimentary traditional black or white robes (abayas) and headscarves (shaylas) are available to borrow free of charge at the reception desk in the main lobby. Visitors are also encouraged to stroll through the surrounding Quranic Botanic Garden and adjacent Oxygen Park.
Nearby places in the library
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?Quick Questions
What does the official name Minaretein mean?
In Arabic, Minaretein (the dual form of Minaret) means The Two Minarets, referring to the building's signature architectural feature: twin slender 90-meter minarets that soar skyward at a 65-degree angle.
Who designed the Education City Mosque, and what international awards has it won?
The complex was designed by Mangera Yvars Architects (led by Ali Mangera and Ada Yvars Bravo) in collaboration with Iraqi calligrapher Taha Al-Hiti and structural engineers BuroHappold. Inaugurated in March 2015, it won the World's Best Religion Building award at the 2015 World Architecture Festival (WAF) and the RIBA International Award.
What do the five massive columns supporting the prayer hall represent?
The entire spherical prayer hall is elevated above reflecting pools on five colossal inclined concrete-and-steel columns representing the Five Pillars of Islam (Shahada, Salah, Zakat, Sawm, and Hajj), with each column embossed in Arabic calligraphy with the Quranic verse relating to that pillar.
Why do the two 90-meter minarets lean at a 65-degree angle instead of standing vertically?
The twin Minaretein are angled at 65 degrees along the exact geodesic azimuth pointing westward from Al Rayyan toward the Kaaba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, acting as a monumental visual compass showing the Qibla prayer direction across the entire Education City campus.
How does the building express the classical Islamic concept of a Kulliyya?
A Kulliyya is an institution where all knowledge is sought. The Minaretein Center weaves the classrooms and circular 100,000-book library of Hamad Bin Khalifa University's College of Islamic Studies into a continuous double spiral with the congregational mosque, symbolizing the unity of Knowledge (Ilm) and Faith (Iman).
Can non-Muslim tourists visit the Education City Mosque by metro?
Yes. Visitors of all faiths are welcomed free of charge outside prayer hours (with complimentary abayas and headscarves loaned to female visitors at reception). Travelers can ride the Doha Metro Green Line to Education City Station and either walk 8 minutes or take the free Education City Tram Blue Line to the entrance.