Ketchaoua Mosque

The large Ketchaoua cathedral mosque in the city of Algiers (People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria) was built in the 17th century and is one of the main attractions in Algeria’s capital.

The work in this mosque was carried out in collaboration with Algerian colleagues from CNERIB (National Center for Studies and Integrated Research Building) as part of a research study on the acoustics of large cathedral mosques.

The measurements in the mosque’s prayer hall were carried out in compliance with the international standard ISO 3382. The reverberation time, speech intelligibility, and other acoustic quality criteria are reported. An analysis of the results and a subjective assessment of the acoustics of the mosque showed that speech intelligibility in the prayer hall was insufficient.

The measured acoustic criteria are compared with the optimal values and results of a survey of other mosques. Possible ways of improving sound quality by architectural acoustic methods are formulated.

The results were published in Acoustical Physics (2021). Link to the article.

The results of an acoustic survey of the large Ketchaoua cathedral mosque in the city of Algiers (People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria) are demonstrated, as well as an overview of the main problems of the acoustics of prayer halls in religious buildings, such as churches, temples, and mosques, based on this case study.