Saturday, September 1, 2012

The KK Diaries: The City Mosque

Day 3 - Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

Still on the third day.

I rarely see mosques, the Muslim's place of worship here in the Philippines. Actually, I have seen one or two in my life but it wasn't really that grand. My hometown, Davao City, despite being the largest and the regional center of Mindanao is dominated by Christians. Only a small portion of the island is dominated by Islam (see also: Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao).

Kota Kinabalu City Mosque

Part of our itinerary was to visit the City Mosque of Kota Kinabalu. A quick bus trip from Wawasan terminal to the Likas District soon had me riding the highways of the city (which by the way offer a scenic view of the West Philippine Sea). I am not a religious person but I do appreciate the architecture of churches and other places of worship. And like any other first time tourists, I got stunned by its grandeur, diary.

Beautiful is actually an understatement.

I have seen a lot of old churches back in the Philippines. And because my country is dominated by Christians, I have become accustomed to see those big and old cathedrals. Sometimes it came to a point that I no longer appreciate some because it because they all looked the same. I am truly sorry for that.

Seeing the City Mosque of Kota Kinabalu was new to me - it was big, it was grand and most of all, it was majestic. It felt surreal while I took a few snapshots of this place of worship. It was prayer time when we went there, thus we were a bit hesitant to go inside the temple. Brenna and Sophie wore sleeveless and shorts while Yancy, Cho and I wore a shirt and shorts. Oops.

Kota Kinabalu City Mosque

The Kota Kinabalu City Mosque is modeled after the Islamic contemporary architecture. Built near the sea, the mosque houses three madrasahs and can accommodate up to 12,000 devotees at a time, making it the largest mosque in Kota Kinabalu. The man-made lagoon which surrounds the mosque adds a dramatic effect to the mosque most especially on a full moon night or sunset. The City Mosque opens daily except Friday from 8am to 5pm. There are no fees charged on visitors (ahhh shout out to all of my kuripot friends out there!).

Kota Kinabalu City Mosque
At the other side.

Kota Kinabalu City Mosque
Tourists!

Because we were so curious, we went closer to see what's really inside that majestic building. Just as we had predicted, we were not allowed to enter the mosque due to our attire. But nonetheless, we stayed at the parking lot. At least we got closer.


Kota Kinabalu City Mosque

Kota Kinabalu City Mosque
The Big Dome!

This mosque was designed to resemble the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, the final resting place of Mohammad.

Kota Kinabalu City Mosque must be included in your itinerary should you plan to visit Kota Kinabalu City, the capital of the Sabah state. And yes, I'd definitely go back here and capture it on a clear, full moon night!

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Read more of my Kota Kinabalu adventures here.

35 comments:

  1. marami mosque sa mga zamboanga peninsula peo few lang yung standout .. i heard this famous mosque when i watched gmanewstv sa motorcycle diaries ... gnda nga tlga

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  2. A very grand mosque. Thanks for sharing.

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  3. 12,000 people? Parang concert hall lang. And so hindi na talaga kayo nangahas pumasok with your shorts inside? Haha!

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    1. Yan ang "The Big Dome" ng KK. Charut. Haha! Oo naman, pumasok pa rin kami pero hanggang entrada lang. Di na kami pinayagan to enter the mosque. :D

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  4. Nice capture of those pictures and nice tell of your adventure :D

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  5. The mosque really stands out and really looks majestic. I'm getting to know more about KK with your travels.

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  6. Done a couple of articles about Malaysia and I've never run across this mosque. Majestic one.

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  7. I'm literally surrounded by this in Riyadh. But one very nice mosque is in Istanbul, the Hagia Sophia.

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  8. Your are right, beautiful is an understatement . . . his is just breathtaking. Great photos there Renz =)

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  9. Looks really beautiful. Too bad there were no shots of the inside. I'm sure it would have been stunning.

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  10. Awesome shots! I just love those clouds. And the mosques look really great.

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  11. First, nice photos you have :) I haven't seen real Mosque yet but I find them beautiful and correct me if I'm wrong but I kind of overheard that the design of each Mosque has a story or something like that.

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  12. Well definitely different architecture from Catholic churches but I would still want to see those two different religious structures in different places of the world...

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  13. nice pics. no swimming. no fishing and no dumping of trash signs. is my guess right?

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  14. beautiful shots! you really and truly capture its beauty..while looking at the pictures I feel like the clouds were moving...

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  15. this is a very informative post. nice pics also. thanks. Yahweh bless.

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  16. The beautiful and most expensive mosque that I have seen here in the Philippines is located in the heart of Cotabato City. It is called the Grandest Mosque in the Philippines. Try to visit that place in Cotabato you will be amaze. Thanks for sharing this with us.

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    1. I'd definitely visit that one soon! Thank you Amaya!

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  17. this mosque is very awesome, but if you want to see like this here in the Philippines, you should try visit Marawi City in Lanao del Sur. I didn't have the chance to visit it but I saw it when I was in MSU Main and it is so big that even though malayo ako.

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  18. it's really beautiful. their grand mosque in Abu Dhabi is also a tourist attraction (yes tourists are welcome inside but women have to wear abayas). it truly stands for its name 'grand'...

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  19. Loved the mosque shots. They are very grand!

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  20. beautiful pictures! what camera did you use? but then it's not the camera but the photographer...

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  21. I wonder how it feels like to be inside a mosque. I want to visit this place too.

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  22. Cool photos of the mosque. I love the clouds! I am sure you are using a professional camera here.

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  23. Being in the Middle East for 25 years, I have seen my share of grand and fantastic Islamic Architecture especially mosques. This one seems to be at par.

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  24. Nice photos. Mosques are architectural wonders that show how good people are.

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  25. Nice set of photos here renz. Really admire your photo skills.

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  26. wow super linis ... super ganda .. super laki ... and this is somekind of different because it is accentuated with water ... WOW!

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  27. Beautiful architecture.. I've never seen one up close yet.

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  28. These mosques look so high and huge even from afar. Such fascinating edifice and unique architecture.

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  29. The first picture is really stunning.

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  30. These are very beautiful mosques that easily stand out from their surrounding structures.

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  31. oo nga bihira ang mosques na malalaki at maganda sa mindanao,pero meron na sa cotabato city na bagong gawa.maganda naman.

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