Amid the modern skyline of desert Abu Dhabi, one building holds visitors' attention for hours: the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, with its vast white marble domes, towering minarets, inlaid coloured stone and fine Islamic ornament. Mohammad Mamun Kabir writes about it for Daily Bangladesh.
Construction began on 5 November 1996 on the initiative of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, founder of the United Arab Emirates, and formal prayers began at Eid al-Adha in 2007. The design brings together Moroccan, Mughal, Ottoman, Mamluk and Fatimid architecture, and according to the UAE's tourism authority the mosque has 82 domes.
The central dome over the main prayer hall is the largest, about 32.6 metres across and 84 metres high, with Quranic verses in several styles of Arabic calligraphy inside. Each of the four corner minarets rises about 106 to 107 metres, combining square, octagonal and circular sections that echo different eras of Islamic building.
The central courtyard, or sahn, covers about 17,400 square metres and can hold some 31,000 worshippers at once. Its floor is a huge floral design in marble from Italy, India, Greece, China and elsewhere; the mosque authority says more than nine million mosaic pieces were used. British artist Kevin Dean helped plan the floral design.
Reflecting pools around the mosque mirror the white domes and minarets by day, and after sunset the lit building shimmering in the water is even more striking.
Photo: Dubaideena / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Daily Bangladesh
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