Golden domes
Atop the minarets.
amanderson2 — CC BY 2.0 · Akidjoh — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Akidjoh — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Akidjoh — CC BY-SA 3.0
South Africa's best-known mosque and historically its largest, also called the Grey Street Mosque, at the heart of the Indian trading quarter in central Durban. Two Muslim merchants of Indian origin bought its site in 1881 and turned a small building there into a mosque, which grew as the congregation swelled. Over the decades neighbouring plots were bought and the mosque rebuilt and enlarged into its present form: a white arcaded facade, minarets topped with golden domes rising above the busy market streets, and a wide, calm marble prayer hall of simple elegance. For a long time it was counted among the largest mosques in the Southern Hemisphere. The mosque is the heart of life for Durban's Muslims, descendants of traders and labourers who came from India in the nineteenth century, and it is surrounded by a lively market of spice, fabric and Indian food shops, close to the well-known Victoria Street Market. Visitors are welcome on weekdays from 9 am to 4 pm and on Saturday mornings until 1 pm, outside prayer times, per visitor guides, in modest dress with a headscarf for women, sometimes accompanied by a mosque volunteer.
Atop the minarets.
Calm and simple.
Around the mosque.
Dr Yusuf Dadoo Street (formerly Grey Street), central Durban
Weekdays 9 am to 4 pm and Saturday morning until 1 pm, outside prayer times, per visitor guides.
