After the visit to the boat building workshops we visited the Islamic Civilization Park.
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DoraMac
Islamic Civilization Park
Part of the heritage tour was to visit this Islamic Entertainment Park. There are replicas of major mosques around the world, a convention center and the famous Crystal Mosque. www.tti.com.my is the website.
A map showing the entire complex. It was really hot and the entire group was supposed to stay together….”herding cruisers is like herding cats,” as Patrick from Labarque said during the welcome speech he gave representing the cruisers at the welcome dinner back at Kuantan….so it was hard to take your time and read all of the info or watch all of the informational movies at some of the mosques. And there were varying levels of interests…mine was somewhere in the middle of the group.
Shaykh Lutfallah in Iran on the left. Scale is 1:4 It was built in the 17th century and once used as a royal mosque. On the right one of the more unique, Samarra in Iraq. Scale 1:5.7 The original was built in the 9th century of bricks and clay. It is located just north of Baghdad.
Replica of the Taj Mahal in India. Scale 1:10. We watched a short movie about the building of the Taj Mahal which included the little factlet that a hand of many of the craftsmen was cut off so no other building could rival the Taj Mahal.
We next were taken to see the Crystal Mosque built with steel and “crystal effect glass.” I think I read on the Park’s web site www.tti.com.my that it is the only mosques built with steel and glass. It is actually a working mosque, though my guess it’s for more special occasions.
The Crystal Mosque is also called the Floating Mosque. From the bridge crossing the river you see it from the back and it looks to be floating on the river.
Tourist robes and headgear are provided. Another cruiser being helped into the robe and scarf.
A local woman in her prayer robes, praying and watching over her son. She was off in sort of a separate area and I peaked in and couldn’t resist her white robes.
When I came out, I couldn’t remember exactly where I’d left my sandals… But I did find them.
Then it was off for lunch in Chinatown and finally an overcrowded public ferry ride back to the marina. Normally the water taxi doesn’t go to the marina, but it did because there were so many of us; too many for the small marina water taxi.