Dubai gets all the hype when it comes to tall buildings, expensive hotels and crazy things of luxury that nobody can afford. But the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi is something to behold. It’s absolutely gorgeous.
The mosque’s official name is Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque and it’s in Abu Dhabi. My friend calls it the Las Vegas of mosques, but I liked it. Yes, it cost $545 million (USD) to construct and the structure took nearly 9 years to build, but it’s worth it. When you walk in, you are in awe and even whispering seems wrong.
When you first walk in, you won’t be able to miss the chandeliers. There are seven in total throughout the mosque. The biggest one is the second largest chandelier inside a mosque (hard to believe there is one bigger) and the third largest chandelier in the world. It spans 33 feet in diameter and is 49 feet in height.
While I was blown away by the chandeliers and the cut marble floral designs on the floor, my friend was all about the carpet. The carpet in the main prayer hall is supposedly the world’s largest carpet. It’s 60,570 square feet and weighs 35 tonnes, which I guess is pretty big, but inside this massive mosque, it just looked normal.
What I did think was cool were the raised bits to show people where to pray so that they faced Mecca.
Everything in the mosque is decadent. The columns are marble and inlaid with mother of pearl. The pools on the outside are so blue in contrast to the white mosque.
These are apparently amazing lights at night as they change to match the phase of the moon. However, we had a flight to catch and could not stay.
Non-Muslims can visit the mosque on Saturdays. It’s free to go in and if you don’t bring your own abaya, they will lend one to you. Guys, don’t wear shorts. This is a place of worship so your legs need to be covered.
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