Masjid Kg Keling

Masjid Kampung Keling

The Masjid Kampong Kling, built in 1748, is one of the oldest mosques in Malaysia. The mosque is located on Malacca's busy north-south running Jalan Hang Lekiu, on the corner of Jalan Tanjong, or Temple Street, both filled with Chinese shop-houses. However, when Masjid Kampong Kling was erected, the neighborhood of Kampong Kling, which runs along the coast to the west of the Malacca River, was still primarily inhabited by South Indians or Klings. The multiple styles revealed in this mosque attest to the synchratic building tradition that flourished in Malacca, a major trading port in the fourteenth through the eighteenth centuries.

Like most Southeast Asian mosques, Masjid Kampong Kling is built on a square plan rather than the rectangular or hexagonal plan of most Middle Eastern mosques. Corinthian columns both define the arcaded verandah that wraps around the prayer hall and also separate the minbar space from the central prayer hall within the mosque.

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