Holy month, holy place.
The month of Ramadhan has just ended. I tried to make time to do Tarawih in a different mosque other than the one near my area. For the past few years, this grand mosque has been a must-visit place for me during this holy month.
Al-Akbar Grand Mosque, located in the south of Surabaya, is one of the biggest and most magnificient mosque in Indonesia. With the dome design resembling a half-eggs shapa dan 4 small pyramid-shaped domes. The color of the dome is blue with intersecting diagonal accents in light green.
I always amazed when I see magnificient place of worship like this. Almost like every inch of the building has its own beauty to admire. There’s also a 99-meters-high tower—representing the 99 names of Asmaul Husna, which is really interesting.
In addition to its function as a location marker and broadcasting the call to prayer, from what I saw on the internet, the tower also has an elevator where people can pay less than $1 to go up there to enjoy the beauty of Al-Akbar Grand Mosque area from above. I didn’t try it because there wasn’t enough time towards Maghrib and also Tarawih. But I really want to try it someday.
Next, lets go inside. If from the front area we can see the towering dome, inside the mosque we can see it from a different perspective. From inside, we can see the ceiling that forms the dome almost looks like a big hole, which is very fascinating to me. Spending time inside a grand mosque with this kind of ceiling always remain me of how small my existence is.
The interior design of the mosque is decorated with amazing calligraphy and beautiful carvings. The motifs resemble Islamic architecture, and the dominant gold color makes the interior look very luxurious. Even all the large doors have matching carvings, as beautiful as the interior.
Another dominant color is of course blue. On the ceiling, there is also a beautiful glass design with Arabic writing on some parts.
On the other side of the main prayer area, there’s huge display of Quran in the middle of the room. The paper is in vintage brown color and has beautiful verses written on it. From the information provided, the Quran is handwritten and more than 100 years old. Its so beautiful to see with the gold carvings in the background.
According to this article, Al-Akbar Grand Mosque has a capacity up to 30.000 people. In the last 10 days of Ramadhan which we called Qiyamul Lail, the number of worshipers who come to spend the night in the mosque for itikaf usually much more crowded.
AL-Akbar Grand Mosque has a second floor so when the first floor is full, people can still find a place to pray. You can see the second floor from the picture below that I took from the fontain area. Yes, this mosque also has a fountain in its hall. With the color-changing light installed around it and colorful lanterns hanging, this area is probably children’s favorite spot and also the most common place for people to take pictures.
On the other side, there’s also a replica of this grand mosque and Kaaba from Mecca. There are also drink machines in some corners of the mosque. If you look outside in the parking area, there’s also a mini park that would be a cute spot for children to take picture. I didn’t realize how big this grand mosque was, but I remember always always love going inside it and immersing its beauty.
That’s all about Al-Akbar Grand Mosque in my city Surabaya, Indonesia. This is my first time writing in this community, so I hope you enjoy this kind of content as well. Thankyou for reading as always, and reblog is also appreciated :) See you!