Coral Stone Mosques of Maldives

Mesmerizing is the only word I could say when I looked at the amazing details of coral rock cravings of the Hukuru Miskiiy complex or the Old Friday Mosque in Male, the small capital city of Maldives. It was a great surprised that Maldives processes such a beautiful architecture gem which seem to be unknown among its many tourists who came to this coral atolls country for luxury resorts and beautiful coral sand beach. On my last day in Maldives before I went to the airport I decided to do a half day city tour.

Male in general does not have anything interesting except the small precinct of Mulee-Aage Presidential Palace and Old Friday Mosque which seem to be the sole area that could be considered as historic area. While the Presidential Palace and Medhu Ziyaarath Shrine which dedicated Abu al Barakaath Yusuf al Barbari, a man who convert Buddhist Maldives to Islam, are beautiful colorful colonial architectures, the opposite is the solemn white minaret of Munnaaru, Old Friday Mosque and cemetery. At first glance, it was a bit disappointing, the mosque was quite small and its tin roof was totally underwhelmed; however, my eyes was immediately at the tombs complex, there are four beautiful tomb chapels around the mosque, their craving walls are really amazing with unique design that I believed inspired by sea creatures and sea grass with Arabic writings, the closest comparison in my mind is Celtic pattern art. Surrounding these chapels are many tombstones for royal …

I visited this tentative site in November 2016. The Old Friday Mosque of Fenfushi is not looked after and alone would not deserve inscription. However, the Old Friday Mosque (Hukuru Miskiy) of Male is a true gem.

The overbuilt and overpopulated capital of the Maldives is not the primary reason for visiting this country. Yet, I think it's a worthwhile stop before boarding a sea plane to one of the heavenly atolls. Hidden among several concrete buildings is a small green area with the Old Friday Mosque, a minaret and a 17th century Muslim cemetery.

In theory non-Muslims are not allowed inside the mosque and there is a clear board stating this. However, a strange sentence caught my attention: "Non-Muslims who may wish to enter the mosque must obtain prior permission from the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs". Although I was not looking forward to overcoming red tape while visiting the Maldives, I decided to try my luck at the Islamic Centre since it is right next to the Eid Mosque which is rather generously included among the tentative sites. Visiting the Islamic Centre alone most probably helped me to yield a positive answer as I got permission to visit the Old Friday Mosque. Unfortunately, however, your chances of success will surely decrease if you're in a large group or if your a woman.

The interior of the coral mosque is rather dark but the coral pillars, the beautiful coral engravings and the unique lacquered wooden beams were a definite …

In December 2013, I stayed at Conrad Maldives Rangali Island, which at the time sponsored the Maldives Whale Shark Research Program. I spent an afternoon snorkeling with whale sharks in the Southern Ari Atoll and was very lucky to see three whale sharks. I spent my final day wandering around Malé, where I visited the Friday Mosque, the biggest and one of the finest coral stone buildings in the world.

In my experience, fenfushi hukuru miskiy is older than male' hukuru miskiy. but the government is not protecting that place as the way it should be protected. They are protecting male' hukuru miskiy only. As a proof of this they are not advertising that place.