After my somewhat disappointing first taste of Abu Dhabi on New Year’s Eve, I decide to revisit with the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque firmly in my sights. I drive in Dubai, but it has taken me a long time to get used to it and I can’t say that I’m entirely comfortable with it. Still. So, today I book myself onto a day tour run by Baisan Travel. For AED99 I am picked up near Ibn Battuta Mall, driven around for the day and then dropped back in the evening after a day of exploring. Most importantly, I have now seen the Grand Mosque for myself, perhaps the Grandest Grand Mosque of them all.
This modern mosque is relatively new, having been built between 1996 and 2007. Yes, it is a place of worship and prayer, but just like other significant religious structures – think St Peter’s Basilica (Vatican City), the pyramids of Giza (Egypt), the Parthenon (Greece), Notre Dame (France) and the Temple of Heaven (China) – it can also be admired for its sheer size and ingenuity. Despite its youth in comparison to many of the aforementioned sights, it cannot fail to impress. The statistics, even by todays standards, are mind boggling.
The building itself covers an area of around 30 acres and can accommodate over 40,000 worshipers with 7,000 in the main prayer hall alone. Two smaller adjacent prayer halls, one of which is the women’s prayer hall, hold a further 1,500 each. The four minarets rise to a height of around 107m and the courtyard, measuring around 17,000 m2 is considered to be the largest example of marble mosaic in the world.
As if that isn’t impressive enough, inside is the largest carpet in the world and of the seven German made and imported chandeliers featuring millions of Swarovski crystals, the largest of these (third largest in the world) measures 15m in height and 10m in diameter. Another feature of the main prayer hall is the 96 marble clad columns inlaid with mother of pearl.
There are many, many more beautiful details and decorative delights. The Qibla wall has detailed calligraphy featuring the 99 names of Allah. I admire how the light falls and reflects off the walls, only to discover later that there is fibre-optic lighting integrated into the main Qibla wall.
The carpet is a chaos of color and floral patterns and it’s thick and soft underfoot. It wouldn’t look out of place in a 16th Century palace or a modern day lounge room. Some of Catherine Martins’ lavish designs come to mind (think the elegant interiors of Baz Lurhman’s The Great Gatsby) and I’d love to get a much, much, smaller version done in a turquoise base for my living room.
Looking up at the decoration and light drenched space fills me with a sense of serene peace. It’s not currently prayer time and I can’t see anyone in here actually worshiping, we appear to be all tourists today, but everyone is appropriately dressed. All the women are wearing headscarves, it appears a lot have borrowed abayas and dishdashas from those available to tourists at the entrance and there is an atmosphere of calm and respect.
I take my time inside. The main attraction is the building and decorations. Unlike an old church, there are no statutes or engravings, no paintings and certainly no crypts although Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan A Nahyan, the ‘father’ of the UAE has his final resting place in the grounds.
Outside again and there is more to see. The covered walkways, the reflective pools and the oodles of white marble. All the little nooks have tiled pictures, some mosaics, some don’t seem to fit this definition but are beautiful nonetheless.
It’s hard to take in the full span of the structure. The main edifice is enclosed by the colonnaded walkways at the front and on each side. Inside the walkways is the vast space in front of the mosque that can hold thousands of worshipers on special days. Today the forecourt is guarded and there are just a couple of cordoned off areas that we are allowed in to view it. I crane my neck up to see the tops of the building in the sun and walk around a bit more taking in the vastness of space, trying to imagine it filled with people.
Unlike the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Muscat, the gardens are not open to tourists so it’s difficult to get far enough away to capture the towering minarets.
It’s barely been enough time to walk through let alone take it all in. Still, as I make my way back to the pick up point, I smile to myself feeling blessed. Whether from the place or just the experience, I’m not quite sure. I have finally made it here to have a look and am so very glad I did. I do hope to bring friends and visitors here again but at least I have been here to behold it for myself. Grand just doesn’t seem to do it justice.
Good to Know
Baisan Travel run day trips to Abu Dhabi from Dubai. They are very reasonably priced with local and easily accessible pick up points. There is a bit of an issue with communication and without phone contact or at the very least WhatApp, I’m not sure they would have found me easily. I’m not sure how the rest of the tourists on my bus fared but everyone was there and the bus was more or less on time so it must work. More or less.
Would I Return?
Yes. I still have the new Abu Dhabi Louvre in my sights and would certainly return for another look at the mosque.
Statistics are from Wikipedia, see Sheikh Zayed Mosque.
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