Interning in Dubai: Sheik Zayed Mosque

We're down to crunch time here in Dubai. With less than a week left I still have to write my final report on all of the sites we have visited, study for a final, and prepare our final presentation. I will try to write one or two more posts before I come back to the US.

Earlier this week we went to the Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. It is the largest mosque in the UAE and one of the ten largest in the world. The brilliant white marble of the mosque makes really makes it stick out from the high rises of the city. At each of the four corners stands a towering minaret so people in every direction can hear the call to prayer over the sounds of the city. The balconies and domed tops of the minarets are accented with actual gold leaf. Likewise, the many domes on top of the mosque itself are crowned with gold spires ended in shining gold crescents.

Three of these domes are over the main prayer area which contains the world's largest and probably more colorful rug. A giant chandelier is suspended from the central dome. The prayer area can outside to a giant courtyard for holidays and special services. The entire courtyard is white marble with flowers of different colored marble inlaid. Surrounding the courtyard are long, covered walkways. The roofs of these walkways are a line of domes all decorated differently but all accented in gold leaf. Supporting the roof are hundreds of columns carved to look like palm trees. More gold leaf covers the leaves of the trees.

All of the artwork is a strikingly different from the cathedrals in Italy. There are no frescoes of Dante's decent into the Inferno or images of God creating Adam like in the Sistine Chapel, but the mosque was equally as impressive. Islam forbids Allah to be depicted in human form so all of the paintings and carvings are of flowers or Arabic script. Arabic is a beautiful language to see the way they use it as art. Inside the mosque all of Allah's ninety-nine names are depicted on the walls. Many of the domes were also decorated in script. The mosque was more impressive than some of the luxury hotels we've been able to see.