Algeria begins work on mega mosque

The mosque will have a prayer room for 120,000 worshippers, a 2,000-seat library, an art museum and a research centre.

ALGIERS: Workers in Algiers started laying foundations Sunday for what should become the world's third-largest mosque, a one-billion-euro project that will include a dizzyingly tall minaret.

The huge building in the capital Algiers will be built by the China State Construction Engineering Corporation and is expected to create 17,000 jobs - most of them for Algerians. Construction is due to be completed in 2015.

Algeria's Religious Affairs Minister Bouabdallah Ghlamallah and Chinese ambassador Liu Yuhe attended the foundation-laying ceremony, the official APS news agency reported.

"The construction of this building represents a new landmark in Sino-Algerian relations," the minister said.

The mosque complex will include Africa's tallest minaret, culminating almost as high as the Eiffel Tower at 270 metres. It will have 25 levels and eight elevators to whisk observers to the top to view the bay of Algiers.

It will also comprise a prayer room for 120,000 worshippers, a 2,000-seat library, an art museum and a research centre.