Jami Ul-Alfar Mosque

One of the oldest mosques in Colombo city, the striking-looking Jami-Ul-Alfar was reputedly built at the request of Muslim shopkeepers in the bustling Pettah Bazaar to make it easier to attend Friday prayers. A landmark building, with its red and white horizontal stripes, minarets and cupolas, it dominates one of the main streets of this north Colombo district, itself a major tourist attraction. Jami-Ul-Alfar Mosque was completed in 1909, and in those days, before other taller and more notable landmarks were built, it was used as a navigational reference point by sailors approaching the nearby port.