The Grand Mosque – Abu Dhabi |
Posted: January 8, 2018 |
Also known as the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, this Mosque has many special and unique elements: It is designed to use natural light at it’s best, and clearly the architects studied the light and designed well, which makes it a dream to photograph. The carpet in the main prayer hall is said to be the world’s largest carpet designed by Iranian artist Ali Khaliqi. I am told it was made on site with woman from Afghanistan doing most of the work. This carpet is a massive 60,570 sq ft, and was made by around 1250 carpet knotters. The weight of this carpet is 35 ton and is predominantly made from wool (originating from New Zealand and Iran). There are 2,268,000,000 knots within the carpet and it took about two years to complete. There are seven imported chandeliers sourced from Faustig in Munich incorporating millions of Swarovski crystals. The largest chandelier is the second largest known chandelier inside a mosque and the third largest in the world having a 33 foot diameter and about 50 feet high. The pools along the arcades reflect the mosque’s spectacular columns, which becomes even more glorious at night. Reflections are lovely and make good pictures! Beautiful bluish gray clouds are projected in lights onto the external walls and get brighter and darker according to the phase of the moon. The 96 columns in the main prayer hall are clad with marble and inlaid with mother of pearl, one of the few places where you will see this craftsmanship. Reminded me of the Taj Mahal and Mughal architecture. The Qibla wall features subtle fibre-optic lighting, which is integrated as part of the organic design and I understand that these have to be replaced regularly, which is done seamlessly. The mosque can accommodate over 40,000 worshippers, while the main prayer hall can hold over 7,000. There are two smaller prayer halls, with a capacity of 1,500 each, one of which is the women’s prayer hall. There are four minarets on the four corners of the courtyard which rise 350 feet. The courtyard, wich features a floral design, measures about 180,000 sq feet, and is said to be the largest example of marble mosaic in the world. The best material was sourced from all over the world, including Sivec from Prilep, Macedonia which was used on the external cladding (1,239,130 square feet) of the mosque, including the minarets). Lasa from Laas, South Tyrol, Italy features in the internal elevations, Makrana from India has been used in the annexes and offices, Aquabiana and Biano from Italy and East White and Ming Green from China are also a part of this magnificent structure. Read more blogs at http://somduttprasad.tumblr.com/
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