Grand Mosque - September 19, 2009

We visited the Grand Mosque today, with Stephanne (the teacher I'm TAing for). WOW!! It was breathtaking. All the pillars made of marble with inlay of different stones, was amazing. The floors were also marble with inlay of different stones making lovely floral patterns. There were pools of water with the Mosque reflecting in them. Part of the floor, if you looked closely, were tiny tiles of marble in a pattern all joined together to make larger tiles. There were painted mosaics on different tiles through out. It was all just amazing to walk around and look at the workmanship that went into making it - and this was just the outside.

To go into the actual Mosque you have to take off your shoes and make sure you are dressed properly: Men/boys in long pants, long shirts; Women in long skirts so you can't see your ancles, long sleeve shirts and then we were given our own abaya to wear when we got there. We also had to have our heads covered inside. It was very bright outside with all the white marble and the sun, so we were happy to go inside for a while.

The inside of the Mosque was absolutely beautiful. Again the workmanship of the stone work, the huge crystal chandalairs were staggering. The largest hand-woven Persian carpet in the world. The glass work on the windows, the stone work with lights shining through on the walls and floors, just made it one of those places that you are constantly gauking at everything trying to take it all in and still only seeing part of it. It is definately one of those places that anyone coming over will want to see, and we would be more than happy to go again and again, to try and take it all in.

The kids were awesome in the Mosque because they were also trying to see everything and taking pictures of everything. Take a look at our pictures, but you should also check out this site: http://www.visitabudhabi.ae/en/what.to.do/mosques.and.other.places.of.worship/sh.zayed.mosque.aspx

The first part is of information for times open and stuff, but go the bottom and it gives some stats about the Mosque. It really is impressive to see and read about. We had a wonderful time exploring it.