Athar Jamath Mosque

The Athar Jamath Mosque, known locally as the Big Mosque, stands on Oppanakara Street in Coimbatore and is one of the city's oldest and largest mosques. A perfume merchant named Athar, who had moved from Tirunelveli, built it over 44 years, from 1860 to 1904. Its community descends from 52 Tirunelveli families who settled in Coimbatore in 1850, and their elected committee also runs several dargahs and three schools.

The mosque is built of limestone and mortar polished with egg white. Cusped arches line the open courtyard around the prayer halls, with a covered ablution pond in one corner, a small library and a kitchen that makes nonbu kanji, rice gruel, during Ramadan. Two 26-metre minarets with silver domes stand out over the Town Hall area, and about 2,000 can pray here on Fridays. Beside it is the dargah of the Sufi Pir Jamesha Waliullah, who died in the 1850s, where visitors have amulets tied at their necks.