Ketchaoua mosque to re-open within 12 months in Algeria

Ketchaoua mosque of Algiers which underwent rehabilitation works will reopen within 12 months, announced Tuesday in Algiers Minister of Religious Affairs and Waqfs, Mohamed Aissa.
"The mosque marking the Ottoman era in Algeria will be opened at the end of rehabilitation and restoration, expected in 12 months," the minister said at the forum of daily Liberté.
Ketchaoua mosque, mixture of Romano-Byzantine and Arab-Turkish architectural styles, was built around 1613 and enlarged in 1794 by the Dey Hussein. After independence in 1962, the mosque recovered its vocation of Muslim place of worship.
Demolished in 1832 by the French and converted into a cathedral, Ketchaoua mosque which threatened by ruin because of drilling has undergone rehabilitation entrusted to a Turkish company, the minister said.
The decision to restore the mosque, closed since 2006, was taken at the end of the agreement signed between Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, during the latter's visit to Algiers in September 2013.