Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque

Few capitals are defined by a single building as completely as Bandar Seri Begawan is by the Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque. Its golden dome rises above a low, green river town, and from almost anywhere in the centre it is the fixed point the eye returns to. Work began in February 1954 and the mosque was opened on 26 September 1958, named after Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien III, the 28th ruler of Brunei, who sketched the first ideas for it himself. The Italian architect Rudolfo Nolli worked on the design with the firm Booty Edwards & Partners, and the result is an eclectic blend of Mughal forms, Italianate detail and Malay setting.

The materials read like an inventory of the world's workshops: marble from Italy, granite from Shanghai, chandeliers from England, stained glass, and a dome surface laid with gold leaf over a mosaic of more than three million pieces of Venetian glass. The dome stands about 52 metres high, and the main minaret, around 166 feet tall, is the tallest minaret in the country. Five minarets in all frame a prayer hall built for some 3,000 worshippers, yet the building never feels massive — it is slender, pale and lifted, more like a jewel box than a fortress.

What makes the mosque unforgettable is the water around it. It stands beside the Kedayan River within an artificial lagoon, so that at dusk the white walls and gilded dome are doubled in still water. In the lagoon floats a replica of a sixteenth-century royal barge, completed in 1967 and once used for ceremonies. The Sultan chose the site on purpose close to the Brunei River, so that the people of Kampong Ayer, the vast village of stilt houses across the water, could reach it easily; from a water taxi on the river the mosque and the wooden village are seen together, which is the best way to understand both.

Getting there

The mosque is in the very centre of Bandar Seri Begawan, within easy walking distance of the waterfront and the river jetties. Brunei International Airport (BWN) is about 6 km away by road.