15 Famous Mosques in Kerala: Biggest, Oldest & Most Beautiful

Jamiul Futuh is the biggest mosque in Kerala and, by its builders’ own description, the largest masjid in India. It opened in September 2022 inside Markaz Knowledge City at Kaithapoyil, about 40 to 45 km north-east of Kozhikode city on the road to Wayanad, and holds around 25,000 worshippers under one roof. Construction started in 2011 under Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad, the Grand Mufti of India, who founded the Markaz institutions.

Nothing about it looks like the timber mosques further down this list. The design, by architects Darvish Kareem and Ahammed Aflah, follows the Indo-Saracenic revival style and borrows from Mughal, Ottoman and Moroccan buildings. There are 17 domes, five minarets, four named gates (Mecca, Madina, Yamani and Shami) and a rooftop garden planted with hundreds of trees. The complex also houses a research library, a heritage museum and the office of the Grand Mufti. It is the answer to both “biggest mosque in Kerala” and “new masjid in Kerala”, and it is worth pairing with a day in Kozhikode.

Cheraman Juma Masjid is the oldest mosque in Kerala by tradition and is widely described as the first mosque in India. Kerala’s Muslims date it to 629 CE, in the Prophet’s lifetime. The story goes that the Chera king Cheraman Perumal sailed to Arabia, embraced Islam and died there before he could return, and that the Arab missionary Malik Dinar and his companions carried the king’s letters back to Kodungallur and built the mosque. Historians debate the date, and parts of the present building were rebuilt in 1568.

The mosque went through a restoration of about 30 months (2019 to 2021) under the state’s Muziris Heritage Project. The work removed the concrete additions of the late 20th century and brought back the sloping Kerala roof, timber pillars and the brass lamp that has burned in the prayer hall for centuries. Non-Muslim visitors are welcome in the compound, and many local Hindu families bring their children here for Vidyarambham, the first lesson in letters, on Vijayadashami. Plan a half day with our Kodungallur guide, which covers the Muziris sites nearby.

Beemapally is the pink-and-white domed shrine on the southern edge of Thiruvananthapuram, close to the sea near Poonthura. It holds the tombs of Syedunnisa Beema Beevi, believed to be of the Prophet’s family, and her son Syedu Shuhada Maheen Abubacker. People of every faith come here to pray for healing, and on an ordinary evening you will see as many women pilgrims as men.

The present building was designed by G. Gopalakrishnan, the architect behind more than 100 Kerala mosques, and its foundation stone was laid by M. Muhammad Ismail. The big event is the Beemapally Uroos, also called Chandanakudam, which begins on the first day of the Islamic month of Jumada al-Akhir and runs for about 11 days. Devotees carry pots smeared with sandal paste in procession, duffmuttu groups perform through the night and the festival closes with a procession of elephants and panchavadyam. Kerala Tourism lists it among the state’s main festivals.

Ponnani is called the Mecca of Kerala, and this mosque is the reason. Sheikh Zainuddin Makhdoom I built it in the early 16th century (1510 by local account, 1518 to 1520 CE in other records), and for the next 400 years it ran one of the most respected centres of Islamic learning in South Asia. Students lived and studied inside the mosque in a system called the palli dars, and scholars came from as far as Java and East Africa. Its best-known custom is Vilakkathirikkal, sitting to study around the mosque’s great oil lamp, after which students earned the title of Musliyar.

His grandson Zainuddin Makhdoom II wrote Tuhfat ul-Mujahidin here in the 1580s, the first history of Kerala written by a Keralite and a record of the fight against the Portuguese. The building is a large timber-and-laterite structure with a tiled Kerala roof and a tank for ablutions. It sits near the Bharathapuzha estuary, so combine it with the Misri Masjid and the lighthouse on our Ponnani travel guide.

Malappuram Valiya Juma Masjid is the town’s main mosque and one of the largest traditional mosques in the Malabar region. Its compound holds the tombs of the Malappuram Shuhadas, the martyrs of an 18th-century battle, and the Malappuram Nercha held in their memory is one of the loudest, most crowded festivals in the district.

One of the 44 martyrs buried here is Kunhelu, a Hindu goldsmith who fought beside them. His descendants are still invited to the nercha, which has made this mosque one of Kerala’s best-known symbols of Hindu-Muslim friendship.

The district has the highest share of Muslims in Kerala, so a Friday here gives you a sense of how central the Juma masjid is to Malabar life. Shops pause, the lanes fill and the sermon carries over loudspeakers into the market. Visit on another weekday if you want to see the building quietly, then use our places to visit in Malappuram list to plan the rest of the day.

Kolloorvila Juma Masjid at Pallimukku is one of the big mahallu mosques of south Kerala. It stands on the Kollam to Thiruvananthapuram highway about 4 km from Kollam town, and its white domes are easy to spot from the road.

It is a working neighbourhood mosque rather than a heritage monument, so come for the scale and the Friday crowd rather than old carving. If you are driving the coast, it fits between Varkala and the Ashtamudi backwaters. See our list of places to visit in Kollam for the rest of the stop.

Palayam Juma Masjid began in 1813 as a small mosque for the Muslim soldiers of the British Indian regiment posted in the city, which is why older residents still call it the pattalappalli, the army mosque. The present building went up in the 1960s and was inaugurated in 1967 by President Zakir Husain. It holds about 2,000 worshippers under one dome and two minarets.

The mosque is famous for its neighbours. The Palayam Ganapathy temple, which shares a wall with the mosque, and St Joseph’s Cathedral are within a few steps of it, and the three have shared the same crossroads in the heart of the capital for generations. It is the easiest mosque on this list to visit, a short walk from the Secretariat and MG Road.

Mishkal Palli is the finest surviving example of the old Kerala mosque. The Arab merchant and shipowner Nakhuda Mishkal built it in the 14th century, and it stands four storeys high in timber, with 47 doors, 24 carved pillars and no dome or minaret at all. The prayer hall holds about 400 people.

In January 1510 the Portuguese under Albuquerque attacked Calicut and set the mosque on fire. The top floors still show the damage, and the building was rebuilt in 1578 to 1579 with one storey fewer than before. It faces the Kuttichira tank, and two more old mosques stand in the same quarter. The Kuttichira Juma Masjid is one, and the Muchundi Palli, with a 13th-century stone inscription recording a grant to it, is the other. Walk the three in an hour, then head to the rest of Calicut.

Madayi Palli stands on a low hill beside the Pazhayangadi river in Kannur, and local tradition counts it among the mosques founded by Malik Dinar’s party. The earliest documented date for the mosque is 518 AH, or 1124 to 1125 CE, which still makes it one of the oldest dated mosques in the state.

The mosque is best known for a block of white marble that tradition says Malik Dinar brought from Arabia. The old building was demolished in 2006 and replaced with a new Indo-Saracenic structure on the original foundations, keeping the old qibla wall and the first mimbar, so come for the history and the setting rather than old woodwork. Madayipara, the laterite plateau above it, is a good short walk in the green months.

Thazhathangady Juma Masjid sits on the bank of the Meenachil river in Kottayam’s old trading quarter and is often called the most beautifully carved mosque in Kerala. Tradition places its founding around 824 CE, and local accounts link it to Habib Dinar, son of Malik Dinar. Inside, eight teak pillars and the ceiling are carved in detail, and a water tank for ablutions is cut from a single block of stone that holds about 2,000 litres.

Entry is free, but published visiting hours differ, so confirm the timing with the mosque committee before you go. Kerala Tourism lists the mosque as open to men only. Women were allowed in to visit on two one-off days in 2016, so women should expect to see it from outside unless the committee says otherwise. Our full Thazhathangady Juma Masjid guide has the history of the Thazhathangady heritage street around it.

The Malik Dinar Mosque in Kasaragod is traditionally dated to 22 AH (642 to 643 CE) and is one of the oldest mosque sites in India. It holds the dargah of Malik Dinar’s family, which makes it the most important pilgrimage mosque in the far north of Kerala.

The old Kerala-style prayer hall with its timber interior is still there, but a large remodelling in 2018 added domes, a minaret and new wings. The complex also runs a madrasa, a cemetery and an orphanage. The Malik Dinar Uroos is not an annual event. Kasaragod’s district tourism council says it is held once every three years, and it draws pilgrims from Kerala and Karnataka, so check with the committee whether one falls in your travel year. Bekal Fort is 15 km to the south if you want to add a sight.

Odathil Palli was built in 1806 by Moosa Kakka of the Keyi family, a merchant who traded with the East India Company, on land that was once a sugarcane garden (an odam). It is the best example of a mosque built exactly like a Kerala temple. It has three tiers of teak, dozens of windows, a roof sheeted in copper and golden finials on top.

Non-Muslims are not allowed inside Odathil Palli, so plan to see it from the lane and the gate. It is still worth the stop, because the roofline is the clearest lesson on this list in how Kerala mosques borrowed from temple building. Kerala Tourism’s Thalassery heritage circuit includes it with the fort and the pier.

The Pazhayangadi mosque at Kondotty grew up around the dargah of Muhammad Shah Thangal, an 18th-century Sufi master whose family, the Kondotty Thangals, led a large following across Malabar. It is a centre of the Sufi tradition in Kerala rather than a formal Juma masjid, and it has a white dome set among old trees.

The Kondotty Nercha is the big event, a festival of several days with flag processions, music and feasts, usually held in February or March on dates the Dargah committee sets each year. The mosque is about 3 km from Calicut International Airport at Karipur, so it is an easy first or last stop on a Malabar trip. See airports in Kerala if you are flying in.

Mampuram Maqam, on the bank of the Kadalundi river at Tirurangadi, holds the tomb of Sayyid Alavi Thangal, known as Mampuram Thangal, the 19th-century scholar who led Malabar’s Muslims and opposed British rule. His son Fazal Pookoya Thangal was exiled by the British in 1852.

The Mampuram Nercha falls in the Islamic month of Muharram and is observed as a strictly religious week of prayer and talks, without the music and fireworks of other nerchas. On Thursdays the maqam is busy with families who come to pray and share food, so arrive early on those days.

Vavar Palli at Erumeli is the one mosque in Kerala that every Sabarimala pilgrim knows. Vavar, a Muslim warrior, is remembered as a close companion of Lord Ayyappa, and Ayyappa devotees in black clothes walk through the mosque and take its blessing before they begin the trek to Sabarimala.

The key day is the Erumeli Petta Thullal in January, a few days before Makaravilakku, when groups of pilgrims dance through the town with painted faces and visit both the mosque and the Dharma Sastha temple across the road. Erumeli is about 50 km from Kottayam. Read about the temple end of the journey in our Sabarimala temple guide.