Basouna Mosque, or as it was previously called Abu Steit Mosque, in the village of Basouna, affiliated with the Maragha Center, north of the Governorate. SohagIt is one of the most famous mosques in the village, if not the most famous and oldest, and it has a feature that makes it the closest mosque to people’s hearts, as it is adjacent to the village cemeteries, and prayers are held in it for all the dead in the village, and after that the dead are hidden to their final resting place.
Approximately 22 km away from the city SohagThere is a small rural village whose people are famous for their knowledge, called Basouna, in the center of Maragha. In the middle of it are the village cemeteries, which are adjacent to a small mosque, the Basouna Mosque, or Abu Steit Mosque, made of mud and old, dilapidated walls, due to erosion factors from rain and floods, and the age of the mosque.
Because of the mosque’s poor infrastructure and its unsafety for worshipers, it may fall on them and their children at any moment, which made the mosque’s patrons contact Sheikh Osama Al-Azhari, nearly 8 years ago, in order to restore the mosque, which concerns everyone in the village. .
This prompted Al-Azhari to contact one of his friends, a specialized architect, in order to restore the mosque. He invited him to visit the village and check on the condition of the mosque, writing a report that the mosque was only suitable for demolition and rebuilding.
Demolition and construction of Basouna Mosque in Sohag
At the beginning of 2016, the demolition and construction of the mosque began with support from a Gulf donation, which ended in 2019. Thus, the demolition and construction process took approximately 3 years.
The mosque overlooks the main street in the direction of the Qibla, and from the back the village houses in the marine side, and from the east the village cemeteries, and from the west the homes of the village people.
Basouna Mosque is built on an area of approximately 450 square metres, consisting of a basement, ground floor, and a terrace. The mosque’s main hall for prayer is 160 metres, and the basement is also for prayer in the event of an increase in worshipers. It is used for other purposes such as medical convoys and seminars, and the terrace in the upper half of the main hall is designated for women’s prayer. .
Bahaa Abu Steit, one of the villagers, confirmed that the mosque has a minaret that reaches 28 meters and 70 cm in length, in the shape of the letter A, with a beautiful geometric and decorative shape, which attracts onlookers, in the line attributed to it in three dimensions. The mosque’s mihrab contains the beautiful names of God on each cube, and it has a dome. Its width is approximately 6 meters and its height is approximately 3 meters, and it has approximately 108 small spherical domes on the surface, in order to bring in light and air from From top to bottom, the mosque only has a single window in the main hall, looking longitudinally at the village cemeteries.
Limestone covering the Basouna Mosque in Sohag
He added that the mosque is covered with limestone sandstone that can withstand dust and sunlight, and this suits the nature of the extremely hot place, and works to reduce the temperature in the summer and keep warm in the winter.
He pointed out that the main door of the mosque was not in this place, and because the mosque needed this place, which was a room belonging to an old woman who lived next to it, she donated the room to the mosque.
Yahya Bahaa, a middle school student who lives in front of the mosque, confirmed that this mosque put the village on the tourist map and made its name widely mentioned, especially after the mosque won the Abdul Latif Al-Fawzan Award for Mosque Architecture after competing with 48 countries with 201 mosques, which were narrowed down to 27 mosques. Among them is the Basouna Mosque, which won seventh place globally in the Abdul Latif Al-Fozan Award in Architecture.
