Heritage Ministry to take on volunteers in reassembling coral stone mosque

The government’s efforts to reassemble the Kalhu Vakaru Miskiy will include volunteers, an official from the Ministry of Arts, Culture, and Heritage has said.

State Minister Mohamed Thoriq said this during an interview with RaajjeTV on Sunday night, adding that even students at secondary schools can participate.

Thoriq said that they have already been receiving calls from individuals interested in being involved in the reassembling work.

The state minister said that the decision to involve civilians as much as they was to foster interest in historical awareness and education.

While the ministry has not decided on a new location for the mosque, a public forum was held last week where a number of individuals, history researchers and government staff had participated.

The mosque has been relocated several times, having once been assembled at a local island resort after being auctioned off. The mosque was assembled at the Sultan Park during the tenure of Maldives’ longstanding president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.

The coral stone mosque, built in blocks so as to make dismantling without destroying easy, was removed in 2016 for development of the Sultan Park, which itself is a heritage site by virtue of being the personal leisure grounds for Maldivian royalty.

The park was reopened with recreational facilities and a ‘winter corner’; an ice rink having been built in the place of the mosque.

Finding and reassembling the mosque is one of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s first 100-day pledges.