Lakeside Mosques Of Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia

Kuala Terengganu is the capital of the state of Terengganu in the North East of Peninsular Malaysia. It is a coastal city with many islands in the South China Sea surrounding it. Some of these islands like Redang are hot spots for tourism.

This place becomes a connecting point between the mainland and the islands with ferries plying from here to the islands. It is a small laid-back town with one-sided rickshaws, and its famous fish dish Kori Keropok Lekor Losong nicknamed K2L2. And it’s two modern mosques by the lakes.

Lakeside Mosques of Kuala Terengganu

Floating Mosque

The floating mosque is a young mosque in white that stands by an artificial lake. The day we were there, the sky was laden with dark clouds that were just about to burst. And the white structure looks gorgeous in that backdrop. A tall minaret or tower overlooking the big and small white domes that in turn were looking towards the lake waters appeared to be lost in the anticipation of rains. Inside the mosque, green and yellow glass doors and windows broke the monotony of white. As we walked through the corridor that goes around the mosque, the lake looked beautiful through the pillared arches.

Kristal Mosque or Crystal Mosque

Crystal Mosque written as Kristal in Malay is another mosque that caught our attention as we were driving into the city from the airport. Its silvery domes were shining against the waters surrounding it. This less than 5-year-old mosque is built of smoky glass and steel. We visited it twice, once at night when the glass was dimly shining in the moonlight. And again during the day when we could go inside and see it in detail. During the daytime, smoke-colored glass looks as if it’s coated with gold. Inside the mosque, there are huge crystal chandeliers just below the domes. I assume this is where the name of the mosque comes from.

The Mihrab is yellow on white as is the calligraphy around the doors and glass at the bottom of the mosque structure. The corridor leading to the mosque and the corridor behind it has nice latticework in white, very Islamic in nature.

We always end up visiting old structures when it comes to things like mosques. This was my first encounter with the new mosques that are being built combining modern materials but keeping the old styles intact. Building them around the water bodies adds to their utility. As people come and sit there by the lake making them community places as they would have been meant to be at some point in time.

Recommend you to read the following travel blogs on Places to visit in Malaysia.

The heritage town of Melaka

Malaysia’s favorite Petronas twin towers

Malaysia’s tallest structure – KL tower

Heritage walks around Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia