The Malé Friday Mosque is oriented west. Its prayer carpet is angled towards the mosque's northwest corner, so worshippers can face Mecca while they pray. Devotees enter the mosque from the Islamic Centre, climbing several marble steps leading to the mosque balcony. The prayer hall below has a burgundy-coloured carpet, patterned with images resembling hot-water bottles which demarcate spaces for the believers offering prayers. The carpet can accommodate 1,372 people if each devotee occupies one space. The mosque has a reported capacity of 10,700 for Friday prayers.
It has intricate carvings, with inscriptions in Quranic script. The mosque, in a walled enclosure, is made of interlocking coral blocks with its hypostyle roof supported by cut-coral columns. With three entrances, the mosque has two prayer halls surrounded by antechambers on three sides. Its vaulted, decorated ceiling is indented in steps. Local master carpenters, known as maavadikaleyge, fashioned the mosque's woodwork, roof and interior, and its wall panels and ceilings have many culturally-significant examples of traditional Maldivian woodcarving and lacquerwork. The mihrab, with a mimbar (pulpit) at one end, is a large chamber. The main building, used for daily prayers, is divided into three sections: the mihtab (used by the imam to lead the prayers), the medhu miskiy (the mosque's central area) and the fahu miskiy (the rear of the mosque). A long, carved 13th-century panel memorializes the introduction of Islam to Maldives.
The mosque's adjoining large, round blue-and-white minaret (built in 1675) resembles a wedding cake, with a wide base similar to a ship's funnel. Built of coral stones, it is braced with metal strips.The minaret is surrounded by a graveyard with carved coral tombstones distinguishing males, females, sultans and their families. Women's tombstones have rounded tops; men's have pointed tops, and inscriptions for royalty are gilt. For family members, small mausoleums with intricately-decorated stone walls were built.
This mosque and the other Maldives coral mosques were added to the cultural UNESCO World Heritage tentative list in 2008 for meeting criteria two (use of sea cultures for creating unique architecture), three (a historic cultural tradition with no parallel elsewhere in the world), four (the tongue-in-groove technique shows a highly developed building level for the period) and six (the buildings are associated with both religious and social practices of cultural significance). According to the UNESCO appraisal, "The architecture, construction and accompanying artistry of the mosque and its other structures represent the creative excellence and achievement of the Maldivian people"
