Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

November 16-20 was the Islam holiday Eid Al-Adha. This Eid is the second of two Eids celebrated in the Islamic lunar calendar and it is to commemorate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God. Before the sacrifice God intervened to provide Abraham with a ram to sacrifice instead. The Emirates take vacations and exchange presents with family. The celebrations begin after the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. The appropriate phrase to wish people a nice holiday is "Eid Mumbarak." Since the dates of Eid are determined by a lunar calendar, the actual dates of the holiday are not announced until a few days prior. This tends to throw a wrench in business activities. The hospital had classes scheduled for the week and did not want to cancel, but with Eid very few people attended. In fact, on the first day of Eid only one doctor showed up and he wished to rescheduled. Thus, Will and I had an unexpected day off. We took advantage of this chose to go to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi.

The exterior of the Mosque is stunning and can be seen for miles.

Like many thing in the UAE, the Sheikh Zayad Grand Mosque is a very new structure. It was completed in December 2007 and is named after Sheikh Zayad bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founder and first President of the UAE. Tours of the mosque are available once a day and visitors must dress respectively. This includes an abaya for the women. An abaya is a loose robe worn by Muslim women that covers the body from head to toe and is worn with a headscarf. The abaya is actually considered national dress in the UAE. Female visitors are loaned an abaya upon arrival. I found it to be very comfortable and silky. Surprisingly, the robes have a rather cooling affect; the black acts as a sort of shade.

Will and I outside of the prayer rooms in the courtyard. The combination of
the white marble and the sun was blinding. 

Me in an Abaya in front of the main entrance to the Mosque.

Our very sweet, young, Muslim tour guide explained to us that the construction of the Mosque was meant to 'unite the world,' using artists and materials from places such as Italy, Germany, Morocco, India, Turkey, Iran, China, Greece, and the UAE. By the completion of the project more than 3,000 workers had played their part in the Mosque. It is roughly the size of five soccer fields and can accommodate 40,960 worshipers. Being such a big structure, has put the Mosque in the record books for a variety of reasons. All of the carpet is Iranian and the one in the main prayer room is the world's largest carpet and as our guide told us multiple times, there are no seems! Until last year, they also had the world's largest chandelier at 33 ft wide and 49 ft tall. All of them are made of real gold and Swarovski crystals.

The chandelier in the main entrance. This one was my
favorite. Made of 24 carat gold and Swarovski crystals. 

This was the largest chandelier until another Mosque
beat them this year.

I found it very interesting that mosques, unlike churches, cannot have paintings or pieces of artwork in them. So there are no pictures of Mohammad or depictions of stories in the Quran. This does not mean that the Mosque is not decorated beautifully. The floors, walls and ceilings are covered in flowers. According to our guide, this is because the Muslims believe that when they go to heaven, it will be a large garden and the ski will reflect the ground. The flowers that are made of naturally colored marble and are carved into the walls where my favorite. 

Me in front of one of the floral marble walls. Thank you
lady for getting in my photo.

Many of the gold and floral marble pilers. 

The prayer times clock in the Mosque. Muslims pray
5 times a day, but there are 6 times on the clock
because the second time is a warning time, the sunrise
time. The first pray must be done before sunrise.

The pulpit in the main prayer room. I found it interesting
how small it is compared to the rest of the Mosque. It
seems to be symbolic of th fact the Islamic faith is very
personal, between the individual and God.