A unique religious building in Abu Dhabi, which cannot be ignored. Here is also the tomb of the sheikh-founder of the modern UAE, the 14th ruler of the ancient Al Nahyan family, where he was buried in 2004. During his presidency, the desert land of Bedouin nomads turned into a green paradise. He left a significant mark on the Earth. Huge funds from the sale of oil to them were invested in the educational system, agriculture, and construction. The sheikh was also engaged in charity work: the construction of numerous mosques, the opening of cultural, educational, medical institutions and other things. Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan lived for 86 years (according to other sources 88 years), left behind 10 children from 3 wives. From the moment of burial day and night, without ceasing, the servants of the mosque read the Holy Quran.
Architecturally, the Mosque is an interesting mixture of Arabic, Persian, Moroccan, Moorish and even Indian styles, but the outer walls of the temple are made in classical Turkish. The mosque is one of the six largest on the planet and is the largest in the Emirates. The walls on white marble and the columns are inlaid with mother-of-pearl and gems (agate, amethyst, jasper, lapis lazuli, pearls, etc. ) - mostly floral motifs.
The floor of the Mosque is covered with the world's largest Iranian carpet (more than 1.200 weavers worked on it for 2 years), the hall is illuminated by seven huge chandeliers decorated with gold leaf and Swarovski crystals, minarets of fabulous beauty all around, 96 columns, 82 domes decorated with jewelry and gold in 24 carats.
Crystal and glass were brought from Austria, Germany, Greece and India, marble from Macedonia, Italy, China and Greece, calligraphic plates from Turkey, and the design engineers themselves were from the USA - you must admit, a vast geography. The Queen of Great Britain Elizabeth II came to look at this unique "curiosity".
The interior is decorated with a huge number of gilded candlesticks. The courtyard of the Mosque with an area of .17 thousand square meters. m lined with sparkling colored marble.
The Mosque has developed an unusual lighting system to reflect all the phases of the moon, bizarre cloud shapes are projected onto the outer walls and become either brighter or darker depending on the particular phase of the moon, but the images change all the time.
In addition, the Mosque is surrounded by artificial lakes, canals and fountains, lined with blue tiles and, as it were, soars above the water surface - an unforgettable sight!
Before the trip, we read that the mosque literally shines in the sunlight, but is even more spectacular with night illumination, so we wanted to combine these two spectacles and arrived there at the beginning of the fifth evening (this is in December). It seems that we were far from being the only ones so smart)), there were just a lot of people!
Now about the sad ...about the cons. We, unfortunately, did not read about them anywhere on the net in advance, so I want to warn other tourists. I repeat once again that the Mosque itself is simply wonderful, but access to it is very annoying, we definitely wouldn’t go a second time.
So, not far from the Mosque there are two round domes, one of them is the entrance to it through a long underground passage, but first you need to overcome the serpentine line to the right of the elevator in order to be “ringed” - put a paper bracelet on your hand.
Then you go to another serpentine queue to the left of the elevator to go under the frame and at the same time put a bag on the belt for checking.
What I didn’t like: from the moment you enter this “space dome”, you feel constantly in the ranks, then you move along the underground tunnel for a long time, it’s really very long - it presses and strains a little, and, having come out to freedom at the entrance to the Mosque, you walk a little among water pools and...back in line, in a common "corral" around the perimeter of the Mosque, around the guards (friendly, smiling, I do not argue), but getting out of the general system is not an option. Inside, everything is also moving in a queue with calls to special sites for filming, but personally we love freedom, and this is definitely not there now! Very, very sorry!
In short, we didn’t feel any inner atmosphere there, because we were constantly in a buzzing crowd of excursion groups and the same curious individuals like us. For this - a big minus! Therefore, I gave it a rating of 7 out of 10, although the Mosque itself deserves the highest rating.
Architecturally, the Mosque is an interesting mixture of Arabic, Persian, Moroccan, Moorish and even Indian styles, but the outer walls of the temple are made in classical Turkish. The mosque is one of the six largest on the planet and is the largest in the Emirates. The walls on white marble and the columns are inlaid with mother-of-pearl and gems (agate, amethyst, jasper, lapis lazuli, pearls, etc. ) - mostly floral motifs.
The floor of the Mosque is covered with the world's largest Iranian carpet (more than 1.200 weavers worked on it for 2 years), the hall is illuminated by seven huge chandeliers decorated with gold leaf and Swarovski crystals, minarets of fabulous beauty all around, 96 columns, 82 domes decorated with jewelry and gold in 24 carats.
Crystal and glass were brought from Austria, Germany, Greece and India, marble from Macedonia, Italy, China and Greece, calligraphic plates from Turkey, and the design engineers themselves were from the USA - you must admit, a vast geography. The Queen of Great Britain Elizabeth II came to look at this unique "curiosity".
The interior is decorated with a huge number of gilded candlesticks. The courtyard of the Mosque with an area of .17 thousand square meters. m lined with sparkling colored marble.
The Mosque has developed an unusual lighting system to reflect all the phases of the moon, bizarre cloud shapes are projected onto the outer walls and become either brighter or darker depending on the particular phase of the moon, but the images change all the time.
In addition, the Mosque is surrounded by artificial lakes, canals and fountains, lined with blue tiles and, as it were, soars above the water surface - an unforgettable sight!
Before the trip, we read that the mosque literally shines in the sunlight, but is even more spectacular with night illumination, so we wanted to combine these two spectacles and arrived there at the beginning of the fifth evening (this is in December). It seems that we were far from being the only ones so smart)), there were just a lot of people!
Now about the sad ...about the cons. We, unfortunately, did not read about them anywhere on the net in advance, so I want to warn other tourists. I repeat once again that the Mosque itself is simply wonderful, but access to it is very annoying, we definitely wouldn’t go a second time.
So, not far from the Mosque there are two round domes, one of them is the entrance to it through a long underground passage, but first you need to overcome the serpentine line to the right of the elevator in order to be “ringed” - put a paper bracelet on your hand.
Then you go to another serpentine queue to the left of the elevator to go under the frame and at the same time put a bag on the belt for checking.
What I didn’t like: from the moment you enter this “space dome”, you feel constantly in the ranks, then you move along the underground tunnel for a long time, it’s really very long - it presses and strains a little, and, having come out to freedom at the entrance to the Mosque, you walk a little among water pools and...back in line, in a common "corral" around the perimeter of the Mosque, around the guards (friendly, smiling, I do not argue), but getting out of the general system is not an option. Inside, everything is also moving in a queue with calls to special sites for filming, but personally we love freedom, and this is definitely not there now! Very, very sorry!
In short, we didn’t feel any inner atmosphere there, because we were constantly in a buzzing crowd of excursion groups and the same curious individuals like us. For this - a big minus! Therefore, I gave it a rating of 7 out of 10, although the Mosque itself deserves the highest rating.
Translated automatically from Russian. View original
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