Jinnah Antarctic Research Station, operational since 1991, emerges as likely site of inaugural salah in Antarctica amid Pakistan’s polar scientific missions.
The Jinnah Antarctic Station, Pakistan’s permanent research facility established in 1991, is recognized as the first confirmed location where Islamic prayers (salah) were performed on the Antarctic continent.
Situated in the East Antarctic region, the station has served as a scientific and logistical base for decades.

Operated by Pakistan’s National Institute of Oceanography, the station conducts year-round studies in glaciology, marine biology, and climate science.
Since its inauguration, Muslim members of winter-over teams have maintained prayer routines within designated spaces at the base, despite extreme cold, months-long darkness, and isolation.
While informal worship likely occurred earlier during transient expeditions, documented communal prayers began with the station’s continuous operation.

A small musallah (prayer area) was established inside the main living module, oriented toward Mecca using calculated qibla directions specific to the Antarctic region.
Antarctic Treaty protocols respect all forms of religious observance across research stations. The Government of Pakistan confirmed the station remains active today, with ongoing research and religious accommodation for personnel.
The station is named for Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan.
This was the result of the state policy pursued by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev aimed at preserving, studying and popularizing the national cultural heritage.


The UNESCO World Heritage List includes: the Jemchug Residential Building, the State Museum of History of Uzbekistan, the Peoples’ Friendship Palace, the State Museum of Art of Uzbekistan, the Tashkent State Circus building, the Central Exhibition Hall of the Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan, the National Palace of Cinema of Uzbekistan, the Chorsu market, the Cosmonauts metro station, and the Sun Heliocomplex.
These monuments represent a harmonious blend of modernist ideas and Central Asian architectural traditions.


Gayane Umerova, Chairman of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation and Chairman of the National Commission for UNESCO, stressed that the inclusion of these sites in the World Heritage List returns an important part of the modern architectural history of Uzbekistan to the international context of the heritage of the 20th century and the world modernist movement, and also imposes a long-term responsibility to preserve these buildings with maximum professional care, to ensure their integral role in the life of the city and to pass on knowledge about them to future generations.
B. Khudoyberdiyev, UzA