February 25th found us heading out to Abu Dhabi to see the Grand Mosque. Before we begin our journey, here are some fun facts about the UAE (United Arab Emirates):
I had mentioned before that the UAE is made up of 7 different "states." Well, each "Emirate" is governed by an absolute monarch; together the monarchs make up the Federal Supreme Council. One of the seven monarchs is selected as the President of the UAE.
The seven Emirates are:
1. Abu Dhabi (The capital of the UAE)
2. Ajman
3. Dubai (Has the largest population and most well known among the UAE)
4. Fujairah.
5. Ras al-Khaimah.
6. Sharjah.
7. Umm al-Quwain.
Dubai and Abu Dhabi are the only two of the seven Emirates to have veto power over critical matters of national importance in the UAE legislature. -Thank you Wikipedia.
We started out our day with over-cast skies.
Which turned into rain.
The temps got down into the 70's...Boo-hiss!!
I think the mantra of the UAE is, "Go big or go home." They have some very interesting and unique architecture. We ran across this building while on our way to the Grand Mosque.
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| This is the Aldar headquarters building, housing commercial offices. It is also known as the coin building. It is one of the 15 global landmarks. It has 23 stories and a lot of elevators: 12 passenger elevators, 2 service elevators, 3 mono space elevators, 1 circular hydraulic lift, and 2 dumb waiters. |
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| It was apparently designed around the golden ratio, whatever that is. I'm guessing my dad, my mom, and my husband know exactly what that is, exactly what it means, and exactly what it does. |
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| Apparently the design was inspired by the clam shell after the fact that Abu Dhabi got it's starts with pearl diving. The architect imagined two giant circular shaped walls of glass that resemble an open shell. |
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| As you can see, I did a bit of research on this building. I found this interesting little tidbit: "The circle symbolized unity, stability, and rationality. It is also the symbol of infinity, without beginning or end. The perfection, the ultimate geometric symbol. Represents and integrity that encompasses all space and time. The sphere, the two-dimensional circle as the ideal and perfect, as no trick of perspective can alter your appearance." Whatever that's supposed to mean. |
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| Interesting bridge design. |
And now we come to the Grand Mosque.........
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| It is the third largest mosque in the world, after the ones in Mecca and Madina in Saudi Arabia. It was constructed between 1996 and 20007. It was designed by Syrian architect, Yousef Abdelky. Yeah, I did a bit of research on it as well. I wanted to make sure I had all of my facts and memories of the tour correct. |
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| It was named after the founder and first president of the UAE, Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and is his final resting place as he passed away in 2004. It was built with the rise of 36 feet above sea level and 31 feet above street level so that it is clearly visible from all directions. |
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| It has a capacity for 50,000 worshipers: The main prayer hall can hold 7,805, South prayer hall (male) can hold 1,222, North prayer hall (female) can hold 1,758, Haram main (or entrance) can hold 936, Haram south can hold 476, Haram north can hold 476, Shan (or courtyard) can hold 31,452, the arcade can hold 10,044, and the mosque's main entrance can hold 688. That's a ton of people!! |
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| This place has 82 domes. The courtyard has a total of 1,048 columns. There are 96 columns in the main prayer hall which are clad with marble and inlaid with Mother of Pearl. |
Some interesting facts about the mosque: The building measures 960 feet by 1,380 feet. Covering an area of more than 30 acres, excluding exterior landscaping and vehicle parking.
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| Building materials were brought in from Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Germany, Austria, New Zeland, China, India, and Pakistan. About 545 MILLION dollars was spent on the construction. The main idea behind the mosque was to build a place which combines all the diversity of the Islamic world as well as the modern and historical architectural values of Islam |
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| The reflective pools are around the entire mosque. |
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| At night, 22 towers with a unique lighting system project a soft "bluish-gray" color on the exterior of the mosque. The light reflects the phases of the moon and it changes according to the moon phase each night. Pretty darn cool if you ask me. |
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| The archways were inspired by Moorish architecture. |
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| Calligraphers from the UAE, Syria, and Jordan supervised the work of artists from all over the world. verses from the Holy Qur'an are written in three types of Arabic calligraphy, Kufic, Thuluth, and Naskh. |
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| Delicate floral designs inlaid with semi-precious stones such as Lapis Lazuli, Red Agate, Amethyst, Abalone, Jasper, and Mother of Pearl decorate a variety of marbles and contrast with the more traditional geometric details. |
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| More than 100,000 tons of pure white Greek and Macedonian marble were used in its construction. Greek and Italian marble are considered to be among the purest in the world. I did not know that. The designs are take from Sheikh Zayed's love for the environment. Zayed was fond of white as a symbol of purity and piety. |
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| This was our tour guide. She told us her name, but said we could call her Jewel as that is what her name means. |
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| The pillars were all made to look like the Date Palm tree. |
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| It features unique plants designed specifically for the mosque. |
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| The main dome is the largest dome in the world at 278 feet high and 107 feet in diameter. |
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| There are 4 Minarets (a tall tower with a balcony at the top from which the Muezzin (a wailing song, I've got video examples I'll post later) that calls the Muslims to prayer.) These rise about 351 feet in height. |
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| The Minarets combine Manluk, Ottoman, and Fatimid architectural styles for any of you who are into that kind of thing. |
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| A bit of Minaret trivia for you. The world's first library is inside one of the Minarets. It has a collection of about 7,700 books with varied subjects ranging from Islamic culture to gardens. |
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| This is the courtyard. It was huge and very beautiful. It measures 180,000 square feet and is the largest example of marble mosaic in the world. The white marble with the floral design inlaid is to represent the presence of gardens in heaven. |
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| Beautiful mosaic fountain. |
There are seven crystal chandeliers made by a company in Faustig, Germany which specializes in Swarovski crystal. All chandeliers are made from gilded stainless steel and brass and covered in 40kg of 24-karat galvanized gold.
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| 40,000,000 crystal pieces were used for all the chandeliers in the mosque. |
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| The floral designs on the walls climb and curl in elegant patterns, creating a semblance of living plants. |
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| Doors to the main prayer hall |
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| On the wall behind me is a clock, one of like 9 clocks throughout the building. It is called an Adhan and it displays the sunrise and sunset times and the five daily call to payer times. The five call to prayer times vary slightly with the sunrise and sunset times. The clock has six petals. There is a digital display at the top of the inner circle which has the Gregorian date. The date at the bottom of the clock is set to the Islamic or Hijri calendar. The first year of this calendar starts with 622 AD when the Prophet Muhammed came from Mecca to Medina in Saudi Arabia. The prayer times are: Fajr (true dawn) when the morning light appears across the full expanse of the sky. Then moving clockwise; Shoroug or sunrise marks the end of the true dawn prayer, Duhur (noon prayer) is performed between noon and mid afternoon, Asr (afternoon prayer) is performed between mid afternoon and sunset, Maghrib (sunset prayer) is performed between sunset and darkness, and finally Isha which is the late evening prayer, performed after dark. Prayers take anywhere from five to ten minuets each and they consist of a cycle of standing, kneeling, touching one's head to the ground (prostration), kneeling again, and return to standing. And they do this five times a day!! |
These next few photos are of one of the foyers.
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| The design of the foyer was inspired by the image of a garden. |
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| The main east foyer shows flowers that grow in the middle east, the north and south foyers are designed with species from the north and south hemisphere. |
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| The designs of the foyers are supposed to embody a unifying message.... |
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| A reflection of the harmony of the Islamic faith........ |
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| And connection between cultures and people of the world. |
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| As a part of our tour, we learned about the five pillars of belief which are: 1. There is only one God, Allah, 2. To pray five times a day and cleanse the body by washing before prayer, 3. To walk to Mecca at least once in a lifetime, 4. To adhere to Ramandan - fasting between sunrise and sunset, and 5. To give 25% of their money to charity each year. |
Now we enter into the main prayer hall.
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| 8.2 million dollars people!! |
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| More of the floral designs. |
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| These were huge pillars. |
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| 15,500 LED lights used. |
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| I have learned some interesting things about the Muslim faith. For instance, the garden theme conveys ideas of both physical and spiritual refreshment. |
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| There are four gardens, divided into two pairs...... |
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| The lower gardens, The Garden of Soul and The Garden of Heart (reserved for the righteous). The higher gardens, The Garden of Spirit and the Garden of Essence (reserved for the foremost). The number four is a universal symbolism in that there are four direction (north, south, east, and west) and the four elements (earth, wind, fire, water). |
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| Designed in the shape of an eight pointed star. The octagon is the transitional geometric form between the circle, representing heaven and the square, representing earth. The gateway between heaven and earth. |
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| You can see just how huge it is compared to the man. |
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| The design was inspired by the Date Pal Tree. The trunk is the cylindrical part of the chandelier, the fronds are the connected parts in a concave shape, and the colored globes are the dates or fruit of the palm tree. |
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| That center pillar straight ahead has the height equivalent of a five story building!! |
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| For cleaning and maintenance, the bottom half of the chandelier is lowered to allow a technician to enter the central shaft and climb up an inner staircase to reach the crystals and light fittings. |
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| It weights about 12 tons!! |
There is a ton of symbolism in the next two pictures....
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| Referred to as a symbol of the Divine Throne. It signifies the renewed man after he has traveled through the seven heavens and regained paradise. Apparently the number 8 is associated with paradise because the pavilions at the four corners are octagonal and represent the throne of God which is supported by eight angels. The great dome of Mother of Pearl rests on the four corner pillars on which is written the four elements with four rivers flowing from the center, one of milk, one of honey, one of water, and one of wine. |
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| The carpeting was amazing. Did you know that the carpet is considered to be the worlds largest carpet? Yes, it measures to about 60,570 square feet. It took about 1,200 carpet knotters to make and weights about 35 tons. It is the largest loomed carpet and was made from Iranian cotton and New Zeland wool. It took 8 months to design, 12 months to knot, and 2 months to transport, trim, and weave pieces together. It took two airplanes to transport it from Mashad, Iran. It worth around 8.2 MILLION dollars. There is about 268 million knots that make up the carpet. The carpet is colored with 25 natural colors. The green color is predominant as it was the favorite color of the late Sheikh Zayed. Included into the carpet are horizontal lines which are slightly raised over the primary carpet height. These are for the worshiper's alignment. The effect of the special knotting-technique is that the lines are not visible from a distance but are only for the worshipers. |
The last few pictures are of the Qibla wall (the direction that should be faced when a Muslim prays. It is fixed as the direction of the Kaaba (building at the center of Islam's most sacred mosque) in Mecca,) the Mehrab Niche (which is an essential architectural element of a mosque. It is symmetrically located in the middle of the Qibla wall. It's design is inspired by one of the references to heaven or paradise in the Holy Qur'an), and the Minbar (the pulpit from which the Friday sermon is delivered and marks the location of the Imam who leads the prayers.)
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| The Qibla wall is subtly lit by LED lights to represent the rivers of milk. |
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| The gateway and Mihrab is that they represent the entrance to the celestial world and the heavenly gardens. |
Those five sided flower shapes each have written one of the 99 qualities or attributes of God (Allah). The words are written in Kufic calligraphy which is the oldest form of the various Arabic scripts.
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| The Mehrab Niche and the Minbar. So the niche is lined with gold glass mosiac to symbolize the shining light of Islam coming from Mecca. It also represents a doorway or "passage" to Mecca. The wave like design signifies the rivers of honey in the Islamic interpretation of heaven. They yellow golden leaf glass mosaic of the niche seems to flow downwards from the beehive feature at the top of the niche, as if it were a river of golden honey. The Imam stands in the niche to lead the prayers. It is designed so that his voice is projected for the worshipers to hear. Above the niche is a golden script which shows a quoted verse that encourages Muslims to learn the meanings of Allah's qualities and use them during prayers. |
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| At the center is a large circle, the name written inside is Allah, meaning God Almighty. The flower shape above is empty, this absence represents the unlimited qualities of God which are "unknown" to us. Some of the names of God are: The Merciful, The Gracious, The Patient, The Wise, and The Charitable. For a full list you can check it out here |
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| They have several carts with copies of the Holy Qur'an |
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| The mosque has a claim to fame in the Guinness Book of World Records with the carpet. |
As I promised, here are some videos of the Muezzins. The first one is hard to hear as I took the video in the Grand Mosque. The second one was from the mall. We were deciding on where to go eat lunch when the afternoon prayer call sounded, so I got a recording of part of it.
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| I discovered a fun game to play. The king has the licence plate #1 and the rest of his family follows. If you see a licence plate with the number 30 or under, you can probably guess it's a member of the royal family. The other numbers you can purchase for a price. Apparently it is a sign of prestige to have a low licence plate number. They like to show off their wealth. This was the first low number I saw. |
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| Downtown Abu Dhabi. |
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| Beef Bacon on my fries. It's just not as good as real bacon. |
After the mosque we went to visit the Heritage Village. It was raining and so we didn't stay very long. They had a display on Sheikh Zayed. Apparently the year of 2018 is being called the year of Zayed in honor of Sheikh Zayed. So I looked up some interesting facts about him.
He served as the president of the UAE since the formation on December 2, 1971. He was the ruler of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi since 1966. He died in 2004. He had a deep religious faith, vision, determination, and belief in hard work. He showed generosity at home and abroad. He devoted his life to the service of his people and the creation of a better world. He was born around 1918 and was the youngest of four sons. When he was born, the Emirate was poor and underdeveloped. The economy was primarily based on fishing and pearl diving. He was a firm opponent of harsh dogma and intolerance. In an interview in 2002 he said, "Muslims stand against any person of Muslim faith who will try to commit any terror act against a fellow human being. A terrorist is an enemy of Islam and of humanity, while true a Muslim is friendly to all human beings and a brother to other Muslims and non-Muslims alike, this is because Islam is a religion of mercy and tolerance." He applied his tolerance ideals more broadly within the Arabian Gulf region and in the wider Arab world. The UAE has traditionally sought to enhance cooperation and resolve disagreements through a calm pursuit of dialogue and agreement. He was modest and he personally checked on the needs of his citizens. He would visit their homes and attend their occasions, thereby creating a unique bond with the people, becoming an inspiration to many in that region of the world. He established a global school of tolerance and co-existence because he knew that from the unions beginnings, the UAE's uniqueness lay in its ability to welcome different races, religions, and cultures without abandoning its social and cultural identity. The principles in which the late ruler believed and strived for were aimed at creating a world of co-existence and peace. He sounds like he was a pretty neat guy.
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| Some of the swords from the early life of Abu Dhabi |
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| An old gun. |
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| I thank my lucky stars that I don't have to wear this. |
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| or this. |
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| or this. Although, after playing in the sand dunes, when the wind blows, I can see how handy it would be to have something to cover your face from the blowing sand. |
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| That little dome in the background is the Abu Dhabi royal palace. |
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| Woo-Hoo!! Licence plate in the low 300's!! |
And we finish off the day with loves from Mango.
I hope you have enjoyed this trip to Abu Dhabi. I won't be able to make any more of my blog journals for a few days since I will be having surgery tomorrow. But as soon as I get feeling better, I will continue.
