The golden domes
Pink walls, onion domes and slender minarets.
Wee Hong — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Thomas Quine — CC BY 2.0 · Mx. Granger — CC0
One of Kuching's loveliest and most distinctive landmarks: a mosque with pink walls, golden onion domes and slender minarets, on a low hill overlooking the Sarawak River west of the waterfront. A mosque has stood on this hill since the mid-nineteenth century, first a simple timber building; the present one was built and opened in 1968. It was Sarawak's state mosque until 1990, when the new and larger State Mosque opened in Petra Jaya north of the river, and it has since been known as the City Mosque or the Old Mosque. It remains a living mosque of daily and Friday prayers, and beside it on the slope lies an old Muslim cemetery with simple headstones. Entry is free; non-Muslims visit outside prayer times in modest dress covering arms and legs, with a headscarf for women. Muslims, of course, pray here at prayer times as at any mosque. The finest photograph is from the waterfront just before sunset, when the golden domes shine. It is a few minutes' walk from the Borneo Cultures Museum and the Islamic Heritage Museum, so make it part of a morning in the old town.
Pink walls, onion domes and slender minarets.
Sarawak's official mosque until 1990.
The domes glowing from the waterfront.
A low hill west of the waterfront, city centre
Borneo Cultures MuseumThe largest museum in Malaysia and the second largest in Southeast Asia, opened 5 minutes walk
Sarawak Islamic Heritage MuseumA quiet museum in a handsome historic building, put up in the early 1930s under 5 minutes walk
Kuching Waterfront and Darul Hana BridgeThe waterfront is the heart of Kuching and its loveliest part: a promenade of ab7 minutes walk
Chinese History Museum, KuchingA small, elegant building on the waterfront, built in 1912 as the headquarters o11 minutes walk
Fort Margherita and the Brooke GalleryA small white fort in the style of an English castle, built in 1879 by Charles B13 minutes walkThe old mosque is closer, prettier and in the historic heart of town; the State Mosque in Petra Jaya is bigger and newer but further out. For a short visit, the old mosque comes first.