The Great Mosque of Oran was built in 1880 on the initiative of Simon, but it was not built until 1918. The mosque is located in the center of the city of Oran and also houses the headquarters of the Algerian Ministry of Religious Affairs and Endowments. Before Algeria's independence from France, the mosque was a synagogue and was one of the largest and most beautiful in North Africa. The temple is one of seventeen places of Jewish worship that were confiscated by the government in 1972, and the temple was converted into the Abdullah bin Salam Mosque, which was named after a Jewish city that converted to Islam.