Faisal Mosque

At the foot of the green Margalla Hills in Islamabad is a mosque that does not look like any other. Instead of a round dome, it has a huge folded roof shaped like a Bedouin tent.

The design came from a Turkish architect named Vedat Dalokay, who won a worldwide competition. His idea was simple and clever: the earliest Muslims prayed in tents, so why not build a giant one in concrete and marble?

Four tall, thin minarets stand at the corners like pencils pointing at the sky, and they are inspired by Turkish Ottoman minarets.

It was named after King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, who funded it as a gift to the people of Pakistan, and it opened in 1986.

At night the white roof lights up against the dark hills, and if you sit on the wide steps you can hear the wind in the pine trees between the calls to prayer.