Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin Mosque

Opened in 2009 and universally called the Iron Mosque, this is the second mosque of Putrajaya and it was built with about six thousand tonnes of steel imported from Germany and China, using architectural mesh in place of much of the walling. The consequence is that the building is substantially open: the mesh screens carry calligraphy and geometric pattern, filter the light into the prayer hall in shifting patterns, and let air move straight through, so a large part of the interior needs no air conditioning at all and is cooled by the breeze off the lake and the surrounding water features. It holds around twenty-four thousand people. It is the plainer and less photographed of the two Putrajaya mosques and, for that reason, usually the quieter one to walk through.

What to look for

• Steel mesh instead of walls - architectural screens carrying calligraphy and pattern.
• Filtered light - patterns thrown across the prayer hall through the mesh.
• Natural cooling - much of the interior ventilated rather than air conditioned.
• A quieter alternative - far less visited than the pink mosque across the lake.

When to go

All year, outside prayer times; midday shows the light patterns best. An hour.

Good to know

Closed to visitors during prayers and around Friday midday. Robes required and provided. It is architecturally interesting rather than photogenic in the way the pink mosque is.

Nearby

Putra Mosque and Dataran Putra are across the lake; the Putrajaya wetlands are north.

Key facts