The golden dome
A great onion dome and four slender minarets.
Georg Wittberger — CC BY 2.0 · Miss Prema Darshini — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Miss Prema Darshini — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Miss Prema Darshini — CC BY-SA 4.0
Many consider it the most beautiful mosque in Malaysia: a great golden onion dome ringed by four slender minarets and smaller turrets, on Bukit Chandan hill in the royal town of Kuala Kangsar, beside the royal mausoleum of the Sultans of Perak. It was designed by Arthur Benison Hubback, the architect of the Ipoh and old Kuala Lumpur railway stations. Sultan Idris Shah I ordered it built in thanks to God for his recovery from a long illness, and the foundation stone was laid in 1913. Work was halted several times, most famously when two elephants, one belonging to the Sultan and the other to Raja Chulan, fought and trampled the Italian marble tiles; then the First World War delayed it, until it was finished in late 1917 and opened by Sultan Abdul Jalil, Sultan Idris having died during construction. It was renovated in 2003. Entry is free, and non-Muslims are welcome outside prayer times in modest dress; for Muslims, praying in this historic mosque is a special experience. The visit takes half an hour to an hour with photographs. Kuala Kangsar is about fifty kilometres north-west of Ipoh, under an hour on the highway, a quiet town on the Perak River, with the royal palace on the same hill near the mosque, seen from outside. Make it a half-day trip from Ipoh, or a stop on the way to Penang.
A great onion dome and four slender minarets.
Two elephants fought and smashed the Italian marble.
Beside the royal mausoleum of Perak's sultans.
Bukit Chandan, Kuala Kangsar, about 50 km north-west of Ipoh
Yes for lovers of Islamic architecture: it is one of the most beautiful mosques in Southeast Asia. It is under an hour away and can be a stop on the road between Ipoh and Penang.