Cherie said something really funny in an email chain, "No photoshop, no photo chop". It seems that way with my pictures too, so I hope you'll like it as I am still not able to edit them...
So in the previous post, I gave a little sneakie of The Sheikh Zayed Mosque here in Abu Dhabi, the one nicknamed 'The White Mosque'.
The mosque was completed in 2007, and basically is the biggest mosque in UAE, and third largest in the world (the UAE wants the biggest of everything, it seems). It has a capacity of 40,000 people and covers 22,000sqm.
The building is clad in white marble, so it's fantastic to walk bare feet on because it feel cool thus doesn't make the scorching sun seem half bad. I remember reading about Mecca and how they have giant courtyards with marble flooring as well, that serves the same purpose.
Ah, the White Mosque also has 57 domes. Why 57? Is there a religious meaning to that? Hm. I'll try to look it up later as Janice Dickenson's Modelling Agency is on the telly now and I'd hate to miss a second of those juicy boys stripping nude...
Right, this is the foyer where the ladies and men are split to their own respective prayer halls.
It's easy to tell where the design of the mosque has been inspired from: the beautiful marble Taj Mahal, and surprisingly, an oriental influence infused with typical Islamic Architecture. Look at the beautiful floral motifs all over the place.
Picture below shows the main prayer hall. The giant chandelier is (coughs, again) 'the biggest in the world' and is gold plated, and adorned with one million swarovski crystals. The mother mentioned that the chandelier apparently weighs as much as 70 elephants (or was it 700?).
Ah, lest I forget, the prayer mat (coughs, again, again) is also 'the biggest in the world'.
It's so fantastic that natural light is brought into the space via skylights and perforations in the wall where the flower motifs are.
Ah, the female prayer room (picture below). Significantly smaller than the male prayer room (don't even get me started on the male/female role of the locals here in Abu Dhabi) but I am loving the humility of the design -the repetition of the archways, the elaborately carved low ceiling.
Most of you know how teeny my bladder is, which meant a visit to the loo. Walked past the ablution room. Am loving the use of green marble and the skylight. The skylight really is a modern glass deconstruction like dome playing a part of the mosque's side facade; the huge contrast in of the modern dome-skylight against the stark white marble walls of the mosque really makes it so very interesting!
The collonades overlooking the giant courtyard, that also acts as the main circulatory system for the mosque.
And that concludes the tour! So for now, I'll share with ya a couple of shots along the route back to our Abu Dhabi home. First you pass by the Al-Yasmina school, which basically only enrols British students. Such country-ists. It looks more like a low scale commercial office to me no thanks to the absence of any form of vegetation...
More sand, still no trees/shrub in sight. The housing area that we're living at sometimes do feel like a giant construction site. In fact, most of Abu Dhabi and Dubai is a giant construction site... You can catch a glimpse of some of the Al-Raha villas (the name of the housing area where we are) if you squint at the picture enough.
Neighbours.
To close off the entry for today, here's another picture of me in an abbaya because I'm really starting to like this abbaya business....
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