A Mughal Marvel
Board Approval: 29 March 2013 \ Rs. 4.8 million
Dhandi Masjid is located on the Dhandi-Jalalani link road off the Tando Muhammad KhanMirpur Bathoro road near Dhandi village, in District Tando Muhammad Khan. The mosque derives its name from the nearby Dhandi mound. It is reported to have been constructed during the Mughal period.
The mosque has a rectangular prayer hall and a hujra arranged perpendicular to the qibla. The prayer hall is divided into three chambers by arches. The nave has a square plan of 10’-4”, and is crowned by a dome resting on an octagonal drum. The aisles have square plans of 9’-3” each, and carry small double domes. The weight of the prayer hall, including the nave and aisles, is supported by six arches. The mosque is most notable for its structural and applied decorations. Structural decorations include the ornate merlons around the octagonal drums of the domes and the buttresses supporting the octagonal drums of double domes of the aisles. Applied decoration includes stucco work on interior of aisles and the mehrab.
Since 2015, one of the main conservation concerns in Dhandi Masjid was the problem of rising damp, which had damaged the walls of the building to a height of 10ft. Air drains were therefore installed around the mosque – a mechanism to ventilate the subsoil and train the damp to come to the surface below ground, instead of rising through the structure.
