The Grand Mosque
October 11th, 2008
I headed down to my local mosque the other day to take a look around. This however is not your ordinary mosque, it’s the Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque of Abu Dhabi and is said to be the world’s 2nd largest mosque right behind the one in Mecca.
The pure scale of the mosque with its many details will take your breath away, it’s almost like seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time. It’s hard to believe how anyone could have done all this, from the design right up to the door knobs.
The whole exterior is covered in white marble from Greece. From the floors, walls, columns and large rooftop spheres, the material must have been taken from 100 quarries. The main courtyard floor is massive, covered in white mosaic marble in many different color flower patterns. Surrounding the courtyard is a covered walk with thousands of marble columns with gold column caps. Inside the walkway there are many different mosaic niches inlayed with exotic designs.
The inside of the mosque is just as grand. A blast of freezing cold A/C greets you at the entrance along with a guard who makes sure your arms and legs are covered. So if you’re wearing shorts and a T-shirt, like I was, he gives you a beautiful white robe to help you fit right in or in my case stick out even more. A gorgeous green patterned rug covers the entire floor which is about three football fields in size, lined end zone to end zone. Massive crystal colored chandeliers hang from vaulted areas in the ceilings, which look like something you would find hanging in Superman’s Fortress of Solitude. There were so many other large and small details scattered about that were all very impressive.
The Grand Mosque is still under construction but mostly finished with just landscaping and parking facilities to be finalized. While exploring the grounds I felt very at peace with the world considering I stuck out like a sore thumb. I don’t fully know the history of the Muslim religion and I may not agree with all their beliefs but I felt a spiritual energy at the Grand Mosque and I know why this place is holy.
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