Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

Last weekend we visited the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. I have been pretty busy with tests, presentations, and class so I am just getting around to posting.  The good news is that I have been getting decent grades so I'm not going to be fired or deported anytime soon.  Sweet.

We decided that we needed a cultural experience, plus like I've said before, there is not much to do here during Ramadan except go to the mosque.  The mosque is named for HH Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.  He used to be the president of the UAE. Here are some pictures of the outside:



Grand Mosque from the south entrance.  Unfortunately it's more impressive from the front.



Outside of the mosque. Probably the longest about of time spent without air conditioning since I got here.

Some interesting facts about the Grand Mosque:

-It is the size of five football fields.

-It houses the world's largest chandelier- it's 15 meters high and cost $8 million.

-It has the world's largest single piece of carpet.

-It has 82 domes.

-It can accomodate about 40,000 worshippers (no one was worshipping while we were there).

The most interesting part of this cultural experience is that the ladies have to wear abayas.  This is a traditional conservative outfit for muslim females.  After yelling at us for taking pictures outside of the mosque (females are not allowed to be photographed without proper clothing), security guards herded us into a room where they handed us the main part of the outfit.  Then we had to wait for ages for scarves because they didn't have enough.  I am 100% sure they were not washed between users which was unsettling.  Meanwhile, our male friends were waiting very patiently for us and draining their camera batteries.  The guys don't have to wear anything special if they are wearing long pants.  The ones wearing shorts had to wear white versions of our abayas, minus the scarves.

The whole deal was actually pretty comfortable, even in the heat. I had a lot of trouble keeping the scarf on, but the security guards were kind enough to remind us when our hair was showing.  Overall, but had a great time just admiring the amazing and intricate features of the mosque, both inside and out.  Here are some more pictures, but they honestly don't do this place justice.

The largest chandelier in the world.

Sitting on the largest piece of carpet in the world. It took 1200 Iranian women to knit it. It's 5000 square meters, 35 tons, and cost about $10 million.

I hope to go back to take pictures at night when all of the domes are lit. One other observation from Abu Dhabi this week- it is more complicated than I anticipated is getting from our compound to... anywhere.  If there is no company bus there then we have to take specific taxis for safety reasons, which means waiting a lot.  The biggest problem is the language barrier. And the fact that taxi drivers have no idea where anything is.  Some of them don't even know how to get to the airport! I am convinced that they just claim ignorance so they can drive around in circles and charge us more!  I suppose I could try to direct them, but there is a lot of open space in this country so there are a lot of round-abouts.  Round-abouts are efficient because they prevent stopping and starting, but they can be disorienting, especially when the taxi drivers don't slow down at all. 

I'm in class this weekend because this coming week is Eid, which is the end of the month of Ramadan. Basically it means the end of a month of fasting, so people are not allowed to fast.  It is also a holiday, so we have two days off in the middle of the week.  Unfortunately so do most taxi drivers, restaurant workers, etc, so I will get caught up on my studying.  And actually I would feel bad if they have to work just so I can go to Ferrari World.  It's like working on Christmas. 

That's all for now, more in a week or so.  Thanks for reading.

ET