Islamabad is one of the few planned cities in the world that actually turned out okay. (Unfortunately the same cannot exactly be said for Pakistan anymore.) The Faisal Mosque depicted here is one of the building that defines the Islamabad skyline and for some time, it was even the largest mosque in the world.

Faisal Mosque is the national mosque of Pakistan and can accommodate up to 100,000 worshippers, with place for a further 200,000 upon its adjoining grounds. The building was designed by Turkish architect Vedat Dalokay in the 1960s. His unusual design supposedly fuses contemporary lines with the more traditional look of an Arab Bedouin tent. Strangely enough, this makes the thing look rather like a Las Vegas gambling palace at night—which, of course, is part why we like it.

Click here for a larger image of this photograph by Mr Emran Ashraf.