Sultan Omar 'Ali Saifuddien Mosque

Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque in Bandar Seri Begawan is the principal mosque of Brunei Darussalam and one of the most distinctive landmarks of Southeast Asia. The mosque was completed in 1958 during the reign of the twenty-eighth Sultan of Brunei, Omar Ali Saifuddien III — for whom it is named — who is widely regarded as the architect of modern Brunei. Designed by the Italian architect Cavaliere Rudolfo Nolli in a synthesis of Mughal and Italian Renaissance influences, the mosque sits on an artificial lagoon facing the historic Kampong Ayer water village on the Brunei River, with a replica of a sixteenth-century Sultan Bolkiah ceremonial barge moored in the lagoon. The main dome is sheathed in pure gold leaf and rises approximately fifty-two metres above the prayer hall, supported on Italian Carrara marble walls and columns. The interior is decorated with stained glass from England, hand-knotted carpets from Saudi Arabia and Belgium, and a chandelier of Venetian crystal. The single minaret rises forty-four metres at the corner of the mosque. The main prayer hall accommodates approximately three thousand worshippers, and the mosque's reflection in the surrounding lagoon — particularly when illuminated after sunset — has made it one of the most photographed mosques in Southeast Asia. The complex remains a working congregational mosque and is the principal venue for major Islamic state occasions in Brunei.