Istana Nurul Iman: Palace of the Light of Faith

One of the places that gives excitement in traveling to Brunei is this palace. Not only because it’s the largest palace in the world, but also because it’s designed by a Filipino Architect, Leandro Locsin. Istana Nurul Iman means Palace (Malay “Istana”) and The Light of Faith (Arabic “Nurul Iman”).

The house is the official house of His Majesty and open only to public during the three-day Hari Raya Aidil Fitri festivities at the end of Ramadan. Another way to check the palace is to take a water-taxi cruise or to stop by the riverside pavilion at Taman Persiaran Damuan.
The palace was constructed for 2 years in a 200,000sqm land and was competed in January 1, 1984. It has a total of 1,788 rooms with 257 bathrooms, five grand swimming pools and a largest banquet hall that can accommodate up to 5,000 guests.
The Palace has mixes of Malay and Islamic elements with the sweep and oversize  grandeur of an airport terminal. It’s four times the size of the Palace of Versailles and three times larger the Buckingham Palace.
One of the breathtaking characteristics of the palace is, it has paintings of world-known artists, including one of the French artist Auguste Renoir painting bought by the Hassanal Bolkiah in 1980 for a record of $70 million.
To prove how rich Brunei is, the windows and doors of the house are made of pure gold. It has an air conditioned stable for the 200 beloved polo ponies of Sultan and an underground garage for 110 cars.

I really wanted to get see the inside but it’s not that time of the year so I just contented, again, myself to taking pictures from the gate. I wish I can see its own Mosque that they said can accommodate more than 1500 worshipers.

Address: Jalan Tutong

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