Pettah, Colombo

Jami-ul-Alfar Mosque

Colombo’s unmistakable candy-striped Red Mosque, an Indo-Saracenic landmark rising above the streets of Pettah since 1909.

📍 Second Cross Street, Pettah 🏭 Built 1908 to 1909 🏠 Indo-Saracenic style 📷 Colombo’s most photographed mosque

Long before the Lotus Tower or any modern skyscraper, sailors approaching Colombo’s harbour used the Jami-ul-Alfar Mosque’s red-and-white striped minarets as a landmark to navigate by. Known locally as the Red Mosque, it’s still one of the most photographed buildings in the city, and one of the most searched Colombo attractions among travellers planning a Pettah visit.

Quick Facts

Location	Second Cross Street, Pettah, Colombo 11
Built	1908 to 1909
Style	Indo-Saracenic
Also known as	Red Mosque, Red Masjid, Samman Kottu Palli
Commissioned by	The local Indian Muslim community of Pettah
Status	Active mosque and popular photo stop

Commonly searched as: Jami-ul-Alfar Mosque · Red Mosque Colombo · Pettah mosque · Colombo Indo-Saracenic architecture · things to do in Pettah

Built for a Growing Community

Construction on the Jami-ul-Alfar Mosque began in 1908 and finished the following year, commissioned by Pettah‘s local Indian Muslim community to provide a proper space for daily prayers and Friday Jummah services in the heart of Colombo’s busiest trading district. The architect, H. L. Saibo Lebbe, designed it in the Indo-Saracenic style, a hybrid approach popular across British colonial South Asia that blended Islamic architectural elements with Gothic Revival and other European influences, producing buildings that felt both regionally rooted and visually striking.

Before taller buildings reshaped Colombo’s skyline, the mosque’s red-and-white minarets were reportedly used as a navigational marker by sailors approaching the port, a detail that says a lot about how visually dominant the building once was over its surroundings.

The Architecture

The mosque’s signature feature is its candy-striped exterior, alternating bands of deep red and white running across the facade and up the minarets. That colour scheme, combined with the building’s onion domes and pointed arches, makes it stand out sharply against the otherwise fairly utilitarian streetscape of Pettah’s market district. It’s a building designed to be seen from a distance as much as appreciated up close.

Visiting Etiquette

As an active place of worship, the mosque is closed to non-Muslim visitors during prayer times and on Fridays. Outside those times, visitors are generally welcome to view the exterior and, in some cases, parts of the interior, but modest dress is expected, and shoes should be removed before entering any prayer area. As with any working religious site, it’s respectful to ask before taking photographs of worshippers.

Getting There

The mosque sits on Second Cross Street, right in the thick of Pettah’s market grid, making it an easy stop on a broader walking tour of the district alongside the Dutch Period Museum, Wolvendaal Church, and the Old Town Hall.

Photographing the Mosque

Because the mosque sits flush against the market street, getting a clean, uncluttered photo of the full facade can actually be trickier than it looks in postcard images. Crossing to the opposite side of the street, or shooting from a slight diagonal angle, generally gives a better sense of the striped minarets rising above the surrounding shopfronts. Early morning light tends to bring out the contrast between the red and white bands more vividly than the flatter light of midday, and it also means fewer market crowds cluttering the foreground.

Pettah’s Multi-Faith Character

What makes the Red Mosque especially interesting in context isn’t just its own architecture, it’s what sits around it. Within a few minutes’ walk are Hindu kovils, a Dutch Reformed church, and a Catholic-influenced market district, all serving communities that have coexisted in this small patch of Colombo for generations. Few areas in Sri Lanka pack that much religious and architectural diversity into such a compact space, and the mosque’s visibility from a distance makes it a natural anchor point for orienting yourself while exploring the rest of Pettah on foot.

Where It Sits on the Map

Jami-ul-Alfar Mosque, Second Cross Street, Pettah, Colombo 11 Open in Google Maps ↗

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is it called the Red Mosque?

Because of its distinctive red-and-white striped exterior, a design choice that made it visually recognisable and, according to local accounts, useful as a navigational marker for ships approaching Colombo’s harbour.

Can non-Muslims visit?

The mosque is closed to non-Muslim visitors during prayer times and on Fridays, but is often viewable at other times; checking locally on arrival is the safest approach.

What architectural style is the mosque built in?

Indo-Saracenic, a hybrid colonial-era style blending Islamic design elements with Gothic Revival and other European architectural influences.

What should I wear when visiting?

Modest clothing covering shoulders and knees is expected, and shoes must be removed before entering any prayer area.

Is the mosque still an active place of worship?

Yes, more than a century after it was built, it remains a working mosque serving Pettah’s Muslim community for daily prayers and Friday services, not simply a preserved historic monument.

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