"Look! Almost there!"
We all looked toward the direction my sister was pointing. Some white domes in the shape of onions had appeared in the distance, and as we got closer, the majestic building came to life.
SHEIKH ZAYED GRAND MOSQUE
Named after the founder and first President of the UAE, the late
Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, it is the largest mosque in UAE and the 8th largest mosque in the world. It is so blinding white, also known as "The White Mosque".
It is built as a monument to consolidate Islamic culture and a prominent centre for Islamic sciences. Also as the last resting place of its name giver, who passed away in 2004. Sheikh Zayed's mausoleum is located underground besides the mosque.
The mosque was built 11m above sea level and 9.5m above the street level so that it is clearly visible from all directions and from the three main bridges connecting the island to the main land - the 300m-long
Al Maqta (means "Crossing Point), the 480m-long
Mussafah and the 842m-long
Sheikh Zayed Bridge.
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| Total capacity over 40,000 worshipers |
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| Construction began in 1996, opened on Dec 20, 2007 |
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| The complex covers an area of 22,412 m2 |
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| 33,000 tons of steel and 250,000 m3 of concrete. |
Architecture inspired by:
Persian,
Mughal and
Moorish mosque architecture, particularly the
Badshahi Mosque in
Lahore,
Pakistan and the
Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, Morocco being direct influences.
Materials: Natural materials such as marble stone, gold, semi-precious stones, crystals and ceramics from all over the world, including Italy, Germany, Morocco, Pakistan, India, Turkey, Malaysia, Iran, China, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Greece and United Arab Emirates.
Designs: finished with a decoration of Greek and Italian white marble (which is considered to be among the purest of the world); three calligraphy styles —
Naskhi,
Thuluth and
Kufic (the last one is the oldest one, used in Quran) — are used throughout the mosque, supervised by calligraphers from UAE, Syria and Jordan; decorated interior with unique plants and the verses of Holy Quran, marble mosaic to cover the courtyard.
(click here for construction pictures).
We entered the building parking area at just around 11 a.m. My sister would be waiting in the car with Owen, and she suggested us to run to catch the free guided walk-in tour.
So we ran towards the entrance, and immediately were stopped by a security officer.
"Excuse me. Do you have anything to cover your hair?", he asked me.
My heart skipped a beat. Though I heard they could provide the attires, but maybe .. No. Please, please let me in, do not send me waiting in the car because of a missing headscarf. "No, I'm very sorry. Could I borrow or rent a scarf from here?"
He nodded. And directed me to another entrance. "For ladies only."
I didn't run, afraid I might offend some more rules that I didn't know. But I walked very, very fast, leaving Andri and Mat far behind.
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| I dressed the checked No. 3 (without headscarf) |
I entered a room attended by a local. She asked me for my passport, sigh .. no, she didn't accept my passport copy. So I had to submit a deposit of AED 50 before she could point me to the clean black attire rack.
Instead of getting just a sheila/headscarf, I got an
abaya. And I guessed this lady attendant assumed I knew how to wear one. The abaya was very loose - I spent a couple more minutes struggling to find the correct holes for my neck and arms and tying up its hood. Pffft.
"Am I wearing this ok?", I asked the lady.
She nodded.
And the look on Andri and Mat's face when I appeared in front of them, covered from head to toe: priceless!
I had to be very careful going up the escalator, as I once saw a sign attached to mall escalators that gave a warning for women not to get their abayas caught by the running stairs.
FYI, I had given up wearing long dresses since a long time ago. I am a fast-walker, and my hands always automatically lift up long dresses to free my legs. I couldn't do that with abaya as it would be disrespectful. I just lifted it up a bit, a little bit to free my ankles on the escalator, and let it down again once I arrived on the upper floor. Then continued to restrain my pace so I would not tumble.
We arrived at the mosque park. We saw a foreign couple were arguing with one security. The lady dressed the same as I was earlier, even with longer sleeves and pants. And she wore a headscarf. From what I heard, she was questioning the reason of the objection since she believed she already followed the mosque dress code.
Ma'am, your outfit is stretchy. You have to hide your curves in the mosque no matter how good you think you look. (That's me saying in my head. The security only said they couldn't accept visitors with improper outfits and asked her to get an abaya that was also available right at the mosque courtyard entrance). I sensed her reluctance, she kept questioning this and that. Hmm. Arrogant tourists.
You know what, once I stepped inside the mosque courtyard, an abaya felt so right. To be honest, it should be set as the only dress code for women to enter the mosque. Wearing abaya elevated my respect towards the mosque.
After all, it still is a place to pray, and not just a tourism object.
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| White marble against the blue sky |
It was a couple minutes past 11 a.m. Far across the courtyard, we saw the tour group. They nearly entered the mosque. It was our last chance, we couldn't wait for the next tour schedule at 2 p.m.
So we rushed following where the crowd was heading. At the front of the mosque entrance, we had to take off our footwear and stored them on the provided racks.
Then we found ourselves stepping inside the mosque foyer and entering The Main Prayer Hall.
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| Under the largest dome with capacity of more than 7,000 worshipers |
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| All visitors who are not joining the walk-in guided tour could only walk within these borders. |
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| Oh .. that's me .. |
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| .. blending in abaya |
We could not catch up with the guided tour. Apparently, we needed to join in at the very start so that we could enter the Main Prayer Hall through a different path outside the rope borders.
From where we stood, we could see the tour group right in the middle of the hall, closely listening to the tour guide. But we didn't bother it that much, because we were in total awe looking around the hall.
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| 96 columns in the Main Prayer Hall |
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| Clad with marble .. |
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| .. and inlaid with mother of pearl |
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| The Qibla Wall, featuring .. |
Our naked feet that previously stepped on cold marble at the entrance foyer, now were drowning in the softness of the world's largest hand-knotted carpet that covers 5,627 m2. Made of 35 tons of wool and 12 tons of cottons, with 2,268,000,000 knots done by 1,300 Iranian artisans in 2 years. It was designed by third generation carpet maker and artist, Dr. Ali Khaliqi.
The carpet felt warm against the white marble columns and surrounding wall. And the soothing ambience causing visitors to talk in whispers, mixed with the sound of cameras' shutters and flashes capturing every beautiful details inside the hall.
There are two smaller prayer halls, with a 1,500-capacity each, one of which is the female prayer hall.
- The Crystal Chandeliers by Faustiq (Munich, Germany)
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| There are 3 gold chandeliers in the main prayer hall |
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| 2 gold chandeliers weighing 8 tons each |
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| with gilded stainless steel and brass and murano glass |
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| Studded with 40 million pieces of Swarovski crystals |
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| with 40kg of 24 carat galvanized gold |
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| The largest chandelier is inside the green curtain at the back |
Unfortunately, the largest chandelier (the same design with the smaller two) in the main prayer hall was under maintenance. They covered it up, all we could peek was the built-in maintenance stairs and a little bit of the top of the chandelier. And it's huge! Claimed to be the largest known chandelier inside a mosque (or the second largest, no matter), the third largest in the world and has a 10m diameter, a 15m height and a 9.5 tons weight. The official website even said it weighing approximately 12 tons (!!).
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| The Blue Chandelier |
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| Made of the same materials as the golden chandeliers |
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| There are 4 of these in the foyer |
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| The largest in the main entrance foyer entrance weighs about 2 tons |
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| The Entrance Foyer with Prayer Clock, Chandelier and Floral on the wall and floor |
We're out of the prayer hall and back to the entrance foyer that we passed earlier in a rush. Now we could see how gorgeous it was with its marble and precious stone floral all around the wall and the floor.
The massive work done to create those floral was beyond my imagination.
While I was still in the foyer, Andri and Mat took their time to go to the restroom. Here we called it as Ablution Room, a place to wash before praying. They were directed to the escalator that was heading underground.
It seemed like forever, I started wondering what they might possibly be doing in the restroom for that longest of time. But once they emerged from below, they didn't say anything.
They only shared the catch when we had left the building, that made me regret high and low for not going down together with them to the ablution room.
From the pictures, it looked SPECTACULAR!
The natural ray of lights reflected down the glass domes above ground created a sanctuary feeling in the room. And that solid jade all around?
I "hate" my husband and my son. How could they keep this from me? *envious to the max*.
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| The 17,000 m2 courtyard with domes in various sizes and four minarets on the four corners |
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| .. with its floral design, considered to be .. |
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| .. the largest example of marble mosaic in the world |
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| A total of 82 domes belong to the mosque |
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| The design elements include pure white marble cladding .. |
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| .. onion shaped ‘crowns’ .. |
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| and crescent shaped finials decorated with gold-glass mosaic |
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| The main dome is the largest mosque dome in the world |
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| with 85m high and a diameter of 32.8m |
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| The floral wall |
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| Reflecting Sheikh Zayed's love for the environtment |
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| The minaret |
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| All rises about 107 m in height |
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| A total of 1,048 columns in the courtyard |
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| Marble columns along the arcade |
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| .. with surrounding pool.. |
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| .. that serves as water mirror |
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| The pool |
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| We were thirsty |
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| or we just want to try |
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| drinking from the fountain |
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| 14 green glass domes |
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| as roof that cover the underground ablution facilities |
There's a library, located in the north/east minaret, serves the community with classic books and publications addressing a range of Islamic subjects: sciences, civilization, calligraphy, the arts, coins and includes some rare publications dating back more than 200 years. In reflection of the diversity of the Islamic world and the United Arab Emirates, the collection comprises material in a broad range of languages, including Arabic, English, French, Italian, Spanish, German and Korean.
We missed to see that library.
In fact, we might miss a lot of details because we didn't join the cultural tour, that was organised by the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority (TCA).
And we also couldn't see the mosque in the evening, where it would show off its lunar illumination - by lighting architects Speirs + Major - that projecting soft clouds of a bluish gray color in lights onto the external walls, reflecting the phases of the moon. As the moon progresses through its cycle and becomes full, so does the lighting effect become more brilliant.
Just look at these brilliant images (credit to owners).
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| Twenty-two light towers consisting of an efficient number of light projectors to achieve this creative effect |
And its 3D lighting show that turns the white marble into a canvas of picture perfect painting.
"The Mosque is the fruit of Sheikh Zayed’s unique vision. The father of the UAE has created an Islamic monument, a center for Islamic sciences and an emblem of genuine Islamic values, in order to illuminate the horizons of Islamic thought rooted in tolerance, love and peace."
There is no other word.
We were humbled.
*for more information on opening hours and tour schedule, please visit their official website.
.. to be continued to Day #10 The Palace.
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