Three Floating Mosques in Indonesia

An aerial view of the floating Amirul Mukminin Mosque in
Makassar, South Sulawesi. (Shutterstock/Akhmad Dody Firmansyah)
An aerial view of the floating Amirul Mukminin Mosque in Makassar, South Sulawesi. (Shutterstock/Akhmad Dody Firmansyah)
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Three Floating Mosques in Indonesia

An aerial view of the floating Amirul Mukminin Mosque in
Makassar, South Sulawesi. (Shutterstock/Akhmad Dody Firmansyah)
An aerial view of the floating Amirul Mukminin Mosque in Makassar, South Sulawesi. (Shutterstock/Akhmad Dody Firmansyah)

As the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, Indonesia is home to more than 800,000 mosques.

Some parts of Indonesia have strong coastal cultures, and people living in areas surrounding the country’s principal rivers are more than familiar with making a life close to the water or even on it. This includes practicing their religion, which has inspired a number of communities across the archipelago to build their mosque above the water.

Here are three of these unique places of worship, as compiled by kompas.com:

Oesman Al Khair Mosque, North Kayong officiated by President Joko Widodo in late 2016. The mosque is named after its founder, the politician and businessman Oesman Sapta Odang. It is located by the beach in North Kayong regency, West Kalimantan. Its design took inspiration from Saudi Arabia and is further complemented by Moroccan influences.

Oesman al Khair Mosque looks as if it is floating on the surface of the water, thanks to 23-meter-high poles supporting it from the bottom of the sea.

Amirul Mu'minin Mosque, Makassar was built to serve as the primary landmark of Makassar, South Sulawesi. The three-storey mosque is located east of Losari beach and is able to host 500 worshipers.

Amirul Mukminin Mosque has two domes, each measuring 9m in diameter. Worshipers praying and contemplating inside it can also enjoy the view of the sea and cool breeze coming through its windows.

Arkham Babu Rahman Mosque, Palu built in close proximity to Taman Ria Beach in Lere village, Central Sulawesi, features four towers and a dome. It is 121 square meters with the capacity up to 150 worshippers.
Perched above the waters about 30m away from the beach, the mosque is accessible from the coast via a bridge.

Unfortunately, Arkham Babu Rahman was among the many buildings affected by the recent earthquake and tsunami that hit Palu in October. An aerial photo of Hasanuddin International Airport shows the mosque disconnected from the shore, after the destruction of its bridge.



First Major US Winter Storm of Year Hammers Mid-Atlantic States

 A person walks down a street covered in snow following a winter storm Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in St. Louis. (AP)
A person walks down a street covered in snow following a winter storm Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in St. Louis. (AP)
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First Major US Winter Storm of Year Hammers Mid-Atlantic States

 A person walks down a street covered in snow following a winter storm Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in St. Louis. (AP)
A person walks down a street covered in snow following a winter storm Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in St. Louis. (AP)

The first major winter storm of the new year barreled into the US mid-Atlantic states on Monday, closing down federal offices and public schools in Washington, DC, after dumping a foot of snow in parts of the Ohio Valley and Central Plains.

More than five inches (12.7 cm) had fallen in the country’s capital by midday on Monday, according to the US National Weather Service, with up to 12 inches in some surrounding areas of Maryland and Virginia. The snow was forecast to continue before the system pushes out to sea on Monday evening.

Severe travel disruptions were expected across the storm's path, and officials urged drivers to stay off the roads if possible. Governors in several states, including Kansas, Kentucky, Arkansas, West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland, have declared states of emergency.

In the wake of the storm, dangerously frigid Arctic air was filling the void, bringing freezing rain and icy conditions to a swath of the country stretching from Illinois to the Atlantic coast. The unusually cold temperatures are expected to linger for the rest of the week.

The Central Plains, where the storm dumped heavy snow over the weekend, were already in a deep freeze. Parts of Kansas experienced bitter cold wind chills, with values from 5 to almost 25 degrees Fahrenheit below zero (minus 15 to 32 degrees Celsius) overnight. The cold air will persist, with daytime highs only in the mid teens to lower 20s.

The airport in Kansas City recorded 11 inches (28 cm) of snowfall, the highest for any storm in more than 30 years, the National Weather Service said. The Missouri State Police said it had responded on Sunday to more than 1,000 stranded motorists and 356 crashes, including one fatality.

In Washington, even as the storm struck, Congress met to formally certify Republican Donald Trump's election as president. But federal offices in the nation's capital were closed.

In the city's Meridian Hill Park, hundreds gathered for a massive snowball battle, organized by the so-called Washington DC Snowball Fight Association. The combatants - many wearing ski goggles for protection - fired volleys of frozen projectiles, as one dog tried to catch the ammunition in its mouth.

"I did not come here to make friends!" Jack Pitsor, who lives across the street from the park, shouted with a laugh before launching a snowball toward enemy lines.

School districts in numerous states shut down on Monday due to the storm, including public schools in Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Washington and Philadelphia.

The storm also left more than 330,000 homes and businesses in the central and southern US without power on Monday, data from PowerOutage.us showed.

As of 1:30 p.m. EST (1830 GMT), nearly 1,900 flights within, into and out of the United States had been canceled, according to the FlightAware.com tracking service. Amtrak canceled dozens of trains on the busy Northeast Corridor line between Boston and Washington.

The three airports serving the D.C. area - Reagan National, Baltimore/Washington International and Dulles - were all open, with crews working to clear airfields of snow, but were seeing many flights delayed or canceled.

Virginia State Police responded to 300 car crashes between midnight and 11 a.m., while the Maryland State Police received 123 crash reports between 1 a.m. and 11 a.m., spokespeople for the two agencies said.