The Grand Sheikh Zayed Mosque of Abu Dhabi

Hey, check out this beautiful classic study in blue and white! We went to visit the Sheikh Zayed Mosque of Abu Dhabi. It is located right up on entrance to the island city, so you really cannot miss it. It is on a rise of land so that it is easily visible when you are not behind a skyscraper office building (ponder that metaphorically as well as literally). It was a huge undertaking, and it was a multinational undertaking. Wool for the biggest single carpet in the world (well it *is* the Emirates after all) was sent from New Zealand to another country for weaving. The marble inlay was done by Italian artisans, and the chandeliers came from Austria. The list goes on.

For a cathedral, you can pop in, check out the relics and leave. Not so in this mosque. It is open to all kinds of visitors, but you have to go on a 45 minute tour and take the tour seriously. Upon entering, the gentlemen mill around while the almost universally inappropriately dressed ladies can go get an abaya and sheyla from the "dress the ladies counter". Here we all are, ready for our tour.


First stop is the ladies ablution room. Here, there is a green marble ablution area, and there are choices of toilets. You can have a western one or a south eastern one. There are also very insistent and helpful attendants who swooped down upon my colleagues to fix their too casually wrapped scarves. We emerged properly attired at last. However, a member of our group, was a sufficiently free spirit that her ankles showed, her neck would show, and her scarf tended to fall off. She was accosted by the costume monitors several times for her dishevelment. Perhaps the real problem was that her toenails were not painted, so she was flaunting her unfashionabe toes which were not as beautiful as the exquisite pedicures the local ladies sported.

The mosque was grand and open and beautiful. Usable net square feet is not something they have been concerned with. The space is enormous, the ceilings almost have another weather system, and the walls disappear on the horizon line. Part of the design aesthetic, as with all structures dedicated to the divine, there is an emphasis on space and scale to create a feeling of humility in the viewer. The floors that aren't marble with intricate mosaic or inlay are covered by equally ornate and colorful carpets. Woven into the carpets are slightly raised lines so that one can quickly orient to the line to be able to pray in an organized way, especially if there are several thousand people in the room. There is a big digital clock on the wall in English and Arabic that gives the accurate times for sunrise and prayer. There are huge colorful glittering chandeliers. There is nothing but air, light, and color.

The young man giving the tour was very general about his discussion of Islam and focused more on the multinational contribution to the building of the mosque. He just reviewed the five pillars of Islam, and he emphasized that only men are required to come to the mosque. However, during high holy holidays, Eid, so many people come to the mosque that they have to clear the parking lot so there is room for everybody to pray.