Page 30 - (DK Eyewitness) Top 10 Travel Guide - Dubai & Abu Dhabi

28 ❯❯ Top 10 Dubai and Abu Dhabi Highlights

Sheikh Zayed Mosque

Standing guard over the city, the monumental Sheikh
Zayed Mosque is the largest mosque in the UAE. It has
room for 40,000 worshippers and attracts vast crowds
during festivals such as Eid. Built between 1996 and
2007, the mosque was the brainchild of the late
president of the UAE, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al
Nahyan. Vast quantities of marble, gold, semiprecious
stones and crystals were used in the construction,
while the Pan-Islamic design unites styles including
Persian, Mughal and Moorish.
The Exterior
1
The outline of the mosque, with its four great
minarets, dominates all approaches to the city.
Covered in snowy-white Sivec marble from Macedonia,
the building is topped with over 100 domes.
The Prayer
4
Hall Carpet
The floor of the main
prayer hall is covered
in a single vast carpet,
the largest in the world.
Made in Iran, the carpet
is well over 5,000 sq m
(53,819 sq ft) in size,
weighs around 35 tonnes
and contains an estimated
2.26 million knots.
The Prayer
5
Hall Chandelier
The Minarets
Hanging magnificently 6
above the centre of the Four minarets
The Prayer
2 prayer hall is the largest stand at each corner
Hall
of the courtyard, rising
of the mosque’s seven
The cavernous main huge chandeliers. some 107 m (351 ft)
prayer hall (above) is an Produced in Germany, high. The design of the
extravagant showpiece this is the third biggest minarets fuses Mamluk,
of decoration and design, chandelier in the world – Ottoman and Fatimid
supported by 96 marble- measuring some 10 m styles from Turkey and
clad columns inlaid with (33 ft) wide and 15 m Egypt, symbolizing the
mother of pearl. The hall (49 ft) high. It was made diverse traditions of
is capable of holding over using over a million Islamic architecture
7,000 worshippers. Swarovski crystals. around the world.
The Entrance 3
Entrance to the
mosque is via a grand
white arcade (right), with
lines of gold-topped
pillars to either side. The
entrance is fronted by
long pools of water.

Eyewitness Travel – Top 10 series LAYERS PRINTED:
Three-column, 8.25pt grid “UK” LAYER
(SourceReport v1.5)
028-029_Top_10_Dubai.indd 28 17/05/2017 12:54
Date 12th May 2015
Size 100mm x 191mm