It being Ramadan, what could be a more appropriate venue to visit than the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque? With guided tours throughout the year, including Ramadan, we at Abu Dhabi Week Towers decided to go for a little field trip.
We have visited the Grand Mosque before – it is a fantastic place to take people who come to stay – but we hadn’t taken the tour, so it was with great excitement that we donned our abaya and sheila and met with our guide Maitha.
Our tour started in the immense courtyard, entirely paved with marble. We learned about the construction of the Mosque and details of its structure. For example, in the courtyard, the grey marble tiles come from Italy and the white marble tiles come from India and is the same marble as was used in the Taj Mahal. The Mosque has four minarets, 82 domes and just over 1,000 columns. On top of most of the smaller domes are small metal spikes, and these act as transmitters of the call to prayer to approximately 90 percent of the mosques around Abu Dhabi.
We then removed our shoes and went inside, first to the men’s prayer room where the carpet mirrors the ceiling (with slightly less detail) because heaven is supposed to reflect the gardens of the earth. It was also handmade in Thailand in one complete piece. We moved into the main prayer room, which is generally only used for prayer on Fridays and special occasions. The carpet in the main prayer room is the largest in the world, it was made in nine pieces and was transported from Iran in two planes.
The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is, quite simply, breathtaking. The guided tours give so much more to the visit, however. The guides are extremely knowledgeable and will field any questions you have about the Mosque, Islam and the culture of the UAE. We learned an awful lot, and not just about the Mosque, and the hour we spent just flew by.
The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is open to visitors from 9am to 10pm, apart from Friday mornings and during prayer times. Guided tours are free and are conducted at 10am, 11am and 5pm Sunday to Thursday, at 2pm, 5pm and 7.30pm on Fridays and at 10am, 11am, 2pm, 5pm and 7.30pm on Saturdays. During Ramadan the Mosque is closed to visitors on Fridays and guided tours are available at 10am and 11am only. For more information, visit www.szgmc.ae/en
Anna McCormack
