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The Sultan Qaboos Grand
Mosque
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The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque is the main
Mosque in the Sultanate of Oman.
In 1992 HM Sultan Qaboos directed that his
country of Oman should have a Grand Mosque. A competition for its design took
place in 1993 and after a site was chosen at Bausher and construction
commenced in 1995. Building work, which was undertaken by Carillion Alawi LLC
took six years and four months.
The Mosque is built from 300,000 tonnes of Indian sandstone. The main musalla
(prayer hall) is square (external dimensions 74.4 x 74.4 metres) with a central
dome rising to a height of fifty metres above the floor. The dome and the main
minaret (90 metres) and four flanking minarets (45.5 metres) are the mosque’s
chief visual features. The main musalla can hold over 6,500 worshippers, while
the women’s musalla can accommodate 750 worshipers. The outer paved ground can
hold 8,000 worshipers and there is additional space available in the interior
courtyard and the passageways, making a total capacity of up to 20,000
worshipers.
A major feature of the design of the interior is the prayer carpet which covers
the floor of the prayer hall. It contains, 1,700,000 knots, weighs 21 tonnes and
took four years to produce, and brings together the classical Tabriz, Kashan and
Isfahan design traditions. 28 colors in varying shades were used, the majority
obtained from traditional vegetable dyes. It is the second largest single piece
carpet in the world. This hand-woven carpet was produced by Iran Carpet Company
(ICC) at the order of the Diwan of the Royal Court of Sultanate of Oman to cover
the entire floor of the main praying hall of the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque (SQGM)
in Muscat. The carpet measures over 70 × 60 meters, and covers the 4,343 square
meter area of the praying hall, all in a single piece. The chandelier above the
praying hall is 14 meters tall. The Mosque is built on a site occupying 416,000
square metres and the complex extends to cover an area of 40,000 square metres.
The newly built Grand Mosque was inaugurated by HM Sultan of Oman on May 4,
2001.
( Courtesy: Wikkipedia)
Timings for visiting Grand Mosque, Oman
FREE admission,
The opening times for public viewing is from 8
am to 11 am. Fri and Thursday closed
( Visiting hours for non-Muslim sightsee'rs are restricted according to days,
prayer times & Islamic festivals. )
DRESS CODE:
Women-cover your hair and dress in loose long sleeved/ankle covering
clothes.
Men - T-shirts are fine, don't wear shorts.
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