Jama Masjid, Mumbai

The Jama Masjid stands in Kalbadevi, near Crawford Market in South Mumbai. In the 18th century the site held a large water tank amid gardens, owned by a Konkani Muslim merchant who agreed to a mosque being built on condition that the tank was kept. Work began in 1775 but disputes with neighbours held it up, and it was finished in 1802-03; the date is encoded in a chronogram meaning the ship of the world to come, a nod to its position over the water.

The brick and stone building is a quadrangle in the Indo-Islamic style, surrounded by two-storey blocks with shops on the ground floor. From the eastern gate a courtyard leads to the tank, about three metres deep and fed by springs, home to gold and silver fish as well as some turtles; it is used for ablutions. Sixteen black stone arches, built in 1874, rise from it to carry the mosque, whose upper storey rests on five rows of wooden pillars.