A three-tiered roof
Traditional Malay architecture.
Wen Yin-Ping — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Akml5599 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Akml5599 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Akml5599 — CC BY-SA 4.0
One of the oldest mosques in Malaysia, a timber mosque with a three-tiered roof in traditional Malay style. Its date is uncertain: some accounts place it in the fifteenth century and credit travellers from the kingdom of Champa, while others date it to the eighteenth. It began as a simple structure on four pillars with a roof of palm fronds, and in the nineteenth century it was enlarged to stand on twenty pillars under a three-tiered roof with a minaret, becoming a meeting place for sultans and scholars. It survived two great floods, in 1926 and 1966, and was then moved to Nilam Puri away from the river, before being dismantled piece by piece and returned in recent years to its original site at Kampung Laut. Entry is free and the mosque is still a place of prayer, so visit outside prayer times and dress modestly, and take in the details of its carpentry: the pillars, the stepped roof and the minbar with its Javanese and Chinese motifs. It lies on the west bank of the Kelantan River opposite central Kota Bharu, about a quarter of an hour by car, near Tumpat's Thai temples, so pair it with them in half a day.
Traditional Malay architecture.
Returned to its site after half a century.
Javanese and Chinese motifs.
Kampung Laut on the west bank of the Kelantan River, across from Kota Bharu, Tumpat district
Because its riverbank site was hit by destructive floods, it was moved to Nilam Puri to protect it. The state later decided to return it to its original home at Kampung Laut, so it was dismantled piece by piece and reassembled there in recent years.