Grady Visits Abu Dhabi - The Grand Mosque

Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is one of the

largest Mosques in the world; able to accommodate more

 than 30,000 worshipers. I brought Grady and Duane there

to tour the mosque along with hundreds of non-Muslim

Westerners to see the grandeur and experience

what the buzz is all about.

It was great to experience this with both of them.

The beautiful Mosque is completely clad in marble and also features
 intricate Islamic decoration and carvings as well as extensive
 landscaping works. The mosque design has different artistic styles
 taken from all over the world. The outside marble is from Greece,
 interior marbles are from China, Italy and Morocco.

We're here!  I now notice my faux pas....it will be evident soon!

The mosque consists of forty-five small domes in addition to
 nine large ones. It boasts of having many features like
 stained glass panels, sand-colored walls and wooden shutters.

One of the many reflecting ponds around the mosque.

The top of the minarets are gold - real gold! It is gold
leaf then a glass protective glaze is applied.

The walls, floors, celings, domes are all  decorated with thousands
 of rare and semi-precious stones like mother of pearl, agate, jasper and amethyst.

This clock follows our calendar, but also the one of the Holy Qaran.
There are five different prayer times identified, except for
Shrooq is a time of choice to pray, reflect. The others identified
are the five prayer times from morning to evening.

The huge crystal chandelier in the main prayer hall, one of seven
German-made chandeliers that costs more than eight million dollars.
 It is 10-metre (32.8 feet) tall, 10-metre wide and weighs nine tons.
 It is made up of millions of Swarovski crystals and 24K plated gold.

Bling! Bling!

The centrepiece carpet is a 6,000 square metre (64,583 square feet) hand-made
Persian carpet said to be the biggest in the world. More than 1,200 women
 from the Khorasan region in eastern Iran spent two years weaving the carpet,
which weighs 45 tons and cost more than $8.5 million dollars.

Women must wear an abaya (the black dress) and a sheyla (black scarf)
to enter the mosque.  You can bring one or wear you own, but if you don't
have one, it will be provided to you during your visit. Each person gets
a clean one -  a nice FREE perk if you are visiting.

This is a favorite picture and my faux pas.  Grady wore shorts and
this is NOT allowed at the mosque.  Men can wear lay clothes: pants
and sleeved shirt.  When you enter the mosque you may not wear shoes,
so you are provided a bag to carry them with you.

This is interesting because this summer we all just left our shoes outside.

Duane and Grady with the Mosque center courtyard in
the background.  Since Grady had shorts on he had to wear
the kandora, the traditional male dress. It is typically white and
worn with a kutra, the scarf.  Grady did not mind wearing it and
like the women's abaya it is provided for FREE.

Here we are living the life of residents in the UAE. At
first we were the tourists and now we are the tour guides.

Three Words:  Embracing New Cultures
احتضان الثقافات الجديدة