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Saturday 21 November 2009 (UAE)
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Sheikh Zayed Mosque (Grand Mosque) Abu Dhabi, UAE
The Sheikh Zayed Mosque, or Grand Mosque as it is often called, is an impressive sight when driving into Abu Dhabi (location map). The words 'huge', 'enormous', 'massive', etc seem to understate the size of the mosque substantially. You'll understand when you drive past it.
Tours of the Grand Mosque available from March 2008, daily at 0900 and 1000 (except during Ramadan - Sun / Tue / Thu 10 am only). Visit the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority information bureaus for more details, or try the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage.
Video (about 3 mins) from Halcrow about the construction of the Grand Mosque...
- Full name of the mosque is Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Mosque, named after the first president and founder of the UAE, who was buried at the Mosque site after his death on 03 November 2004.
- The Sheikh Zayed Mosque is the third largest in the world according to the General Secretariat Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC), the Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture in Turkey. The two mosques in Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia are larger.
- The mosque is located between Mussafah bridge and Maqta bridge in the emirate of Abu Dhabi (route map).
- Area of the Shaikh Zayed Mosque is 22,412 square meters. The 4 minarets are 107 meters high.
- An Iranian carpet placed in the main prayer hall, woven by about 1200 Iranian women, is 5000 sq m and is the largest hand-woven carpet in the world, made out of 35 tons of wool and cotton. Cost AED 30 million, delivered to Abu Dhabi in early August 2007.
- The seven chandeliers in the mosque cost about AED 30 million.
- The main dome is the largest in the world and is 87 metres high with a diameter of 32.8 metres. There are a total of 82 domes in the mosque, of traditional Moroccan design.
- The courtyard will have a total of 1048 columns.
- The Qibla wall will be lit by about 250 EFO illuminators from Fiberstars EFO - a supplier of fiber optics.
- Construction materials and components are sourced from Germany, Greece, Iran, Italy.
- About 1500 workers involved in construction
- About 40,000 worshippers can be accommodated
- Main prayer hall can accommodate 5000 worshippers
Grand Mosque construction progress and contractors
- Construction began in the late 1990s and appeared to stagnate after initial work, with various stories floating about of money running out and disagreements between the contractors and the Public Works Department of Abu Dhabi.
- Halcrow took over the construction supervision in October 2001 and the concrete shell of the mosque was completed by May 2002. Finally, in August 2007, the mosque nears completion.
The original details of the Sheikh Zayed Mosque Project were
- Client: Abu Dhabi Public Works Department
- Designer: Yusef Abdelki (Yousef Abdelky), a Syrian architect
- Consulting Engineers: Tractabel Al Khaleej of Belgium
- Project Manager:
- Main Contractor: Joint Venture between Impreglio & Rizzani de Eccher of Italy
- Start Date: April 1997
- Completion Date: September 2002
- Cost: AED 1.5 billion
The British construction group, Halcrow, took over the project consultancy of the mosque in October 2001. Present details are
- Consulting Engineers: Halcrow Group
- Project Manager: Hill International (USA)
- Main Contractor: Joint Venture between Six Construct Company and Arabian Construction Company (ACC)
- Completion Date: Sep/Oct 2007 with the mosque opening at the end of Ramadan
- Project Director: Khoulah Al Sulaimani
- Cost: about AED 2.1 billion
Last update Sunday 03-May-2009
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