---
node: spot_jakarta_istiqlal_mosque
type: spot
slug: istiqlal_mosque
destination: dest_jakarta
title: "Istiqlal Mosque"
lead: "Istiqlal is the largest mosque in Southeast Asia, built to hold two hundred thousand people and opened in 1978. Sukarno chose the design of Frederich Silaban, a Christian architect, and placed the mosque directly opposite Jakarta's Catholic cathedral."
published: 2026-08-12
updated: 2026-08-12
image_file: spot_jakarta_istiqlal_mosque.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giant_Prayer_Space.jpg"
image_author: "Michael Coghlan"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

## Overview

The siting was deliberate: the two buildings face each other across one road, share their parking on each other's holy days, and since 2021 are joined by an underground walkway called the Tunnel of Friendship. The main dome is forty-five metres across for the year 1945, and the single minaret is a little under sixty-seven metres for the number of verses in the Quran. A renovation finished in 2020 stripped the interior back to its concrete and marble.

## Highlights

Non-Muslim visitors are welcome outside prayer times and are given a robe and a guide at the visitor entrance, at no charge. Go up to the first-floor gallery for the scale of the prayer hall, which is impossible to read from the floor. Friday midday is the one time to avoid; Ramadan evenings are the one time it is worth planning for.