Masjid Jamek @ Mosque in Kuala Lumpur....

It was a beautiful day in mid-May. I decided to take a trip to the oldest part of the city, the area where the two tributaries of the Klang River meet. It was around this vicinity the city of Kuala Lumpur starts it humble beginning in the middle of the nineteen century. Then the country was ruled by the British colonial authority. At the confluence landmass just before the Klang and the Gombak rivers meet there is a beautifully architectural mosque build at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was build for the Muslim who lives around that area then, as well as the official mosque for the capital of the country Kuala Lumpur. It was officially open by the then Sultan of Selangor in 1909. So that made this magnificent mosque more that a hundred years old. It remains as the main mosque in Kuala Lumpur until a new mosque, the Masjid Negara was build in 1965.  Even after that the Masjid Jamek mosque as it is known still play a significant role as a place of worship where folks congregate for their daily prayer as well the weekly Friday Prayer. Come Friday this mosque would be crowded, with some worshipers had to do the praying on the payment outside.

As can been seen in this image it is as magnificent as it was first build in the days where there was no skyscrapers or tall buildings around it. By itself it was a work of art and a masterpiece architecture that continue to draw worshipers and visitors alike to it till these days.

I was there last Wednesday and walk the ground again and saw its at close range. Since it was before prayer time it was easy to go and have a look at the nooks and corners of the place. I saw the floor area is well-kept and clean just like new. The whole floor area was of marbles and looks shining clean and cool to sit on. That is why I felt that marble or ceramic tile is the best material for the flooring of mosque in this part of the world where the climate is always humid. It is easily kept clean all the time by just sweeping and mopping it. The same cannot be said about carpet. I believe that carpet is not suitable as flooring material  in mosque since it is not possible to clean it all the time. Besides carpet harbors millions of dust mites and could not be removed by vacuum cleaning. It could only be clean and rid of the dust mites only by drying it in the sun which is impossible to do for a wall-to-wall carpet. Even with a smaller carpet to me it is almost impossible to dry it in the sun all the times. So I hope planner of mosque in the tropic should not put carpet as the flooring material but use marble or ceramic tile instead.

While there I met a few tourists from as far as Morocco who came to wander along admiring the architecture of this magnificent old mosque; the Masjid Jamek of Kuala Lumpur.

Have a nice day.

[click on image to enlarge]