The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque () is the largest mosque in

Oman Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is a country located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia and the Middle East. It shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Oman’s coastline ...

, located in the capital city of

Muscat Muscat (, ) is the capital and most populous city in Oman. It is the seat of the Governorate of Muscat. According to the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), the population of the Muscat Governorate in 2022 was 1.72 million. ...

Construction

In 1992, the then Sultan of Oman,

Qaboos bin Said Qaboos bin Said Al Said (, ; 18 November 1940 – 10 January 2020) was Sultan of Oman from 23 July 1970 until his death in 2020. A fifteenth-generation descendant of the founder of the Al Bu Said dynasty, he was the longest-serving leader in t ...

Al Said, directed that his country should have a Grand Mosque. In 1993, a competition for the design of the proposed mosque took place. The building contract was awarded to

Carillion Carillion plc was a British multinational construction and facilities management services company headquartered in Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom, prior to its liquidation in January 2018. Carillion was created in July 1999, following a ...

Alawi LLC. Construction commenced in December 1994, after a site was chosen at Bausher, and it took six years and seven months to build the mosque. The mosque is made of different type of stones, with doors, windows and embellishments made of wood and glass. Around 300,000 tons of Indian sandstone was imported for the building. Five minarets have been built around the premises of the mosque: the main

minaret A minaret is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generally used to project the Muslim call to prayer (''adhan'') from a muezzin, but they also served as landmarks and symbols of Islam's presence. They can h ...

() in height, and the four flanking minarets () are the mosque’s chief visual features from the exterior. In the interior, the main

musalla A musalla () is a space apart from a mosque, mainly used for prayer in Islam. The word is derived from the verb (''ṣallā''), meaning "to pray". It is traditionally used for twice-yearly Eid prayers (''Eid al-Fitr, ʿĪd al-Fiṭr'' and '' ...

is the focus of both prayer and tourism. The prayer hall is square in shape and has a central dome rising to a height of above the floor. The dome is embellished spectacularly from the inside and it is a major tourist attraction in itself. The main musalla can hold over 6500 worshippers, while the women's musalla can accommodate 750 worshipers. The outer paved ground can hold 8000 worshipers and there is additional space available in the interior courtyard and the passageways, making a total capacity of up to 20,000 worshipers. The mosque is built on a site occupying , and the complex extends to cover an area of . The newly built Grand Mosque was inaugurated by Sultan of Oman on May 4, 2001 to celebrate 30 years of his reign.

Interior

A major feature of the design of the interior is the prayer

carpet A carpet is a textile floor covering typically consisting of an upper layer of Pile (textile), pile attached to a backing. The pile was traditionally made from wool, but since the 20th century synthetic fiber, synthetic fibres such as polyprop ...

which covers the floor of the

prayer File:Prayers-collage.png, 300px, alt=Collage of various religionists praying – Clickable Image, Collage of various religionists praying ''(Clickable image – use cursor to identify.)'' rect 0 0 1000 1000 Shinto festivalgoer praying in front ...

hall. It contains, 1,700,000,000 knots, weighs 21 tonnes and took four years to produce with over 600 workers and handmade , and brings together the classical

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

Tabriz, Kashan and Isfahan design traditions. 28 colors in varying shades were used, the majority obtained from traditional vegetable dyes. It used to be the largest single-piece carpet in the world, but is now the second after the

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque ( ) is a mosque located in Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. It is the List of mosques in the United Arab Emirates, country's largest mosque, and is the key place of worship for Salah, daily I ...

Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The city is the seat of the Abu Dhabi Central Capital District, the capital city of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and the UAE's List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, second-most popu ...

, the

UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a federal elective monarchy made up of seven emirates, with Abu Dhabi serving as i ...

. This hand-woven carpet was produced by Iran Carpet Company (ICC) at the order of the Diwan of the Royal Court of Sultanate. The carpet measures over , and covers the area of the praying hall. The chandelier above the praying hall is tall and was manufactured by the Italian company Faustig. Since the mosque is high, the chandelier looks proportional, but it used to be the world's largest chandelier, before again being replaced in this respect by the Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi. It weighs 8.5 tons, includes 600,000 crystals, 1,122 halogen bulbs complete with a dimming system, and includes a staircase for maintenance within the chandelier. Thirty-four smaller chandeliers of the same design are hung in other parts of the building.Classical chandeliers in the World
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Gallery

File:Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque Entrance 2019.jpg, View of the minaret from the entrance File:Grand Mosque Muscat (19) (40275047024).jpg, The

mihrab ''Mihrab'' (, ', pl. ') is a niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the ''qibla'', the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca towards which Muslims should face when praying. The wall in which a ''mihrab'' appears is thus the "''qibla'' wall". ...

File:Grand Mosque Muscat (25) (40275044984).jpg, The chandelier in the main prayer hall File:Flickr - JB London - Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque..jpg, Corridor File:Oman 2014 (16037903977).jpg, Carpet File:Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque (19).jpg, Electric lighting File:Grand Mosque Muscat (22) (40275045734).jpg, Window design File:Moschea di Muscat.jpg, Detail of the inner dome

References

External links

* In Arabic
Biggest Chandelier in the World

Official Panoramic virtual tour of the Grand Mosque by the Diwan of Royal Court
{{Mosques in Oman 2001 establishments in Oman Mosques completed in 2001 Mosques in Oman Buildings and structures in Muscat, Oman Mosque buildings with domes in Asia Culture in Muscat, Oman Tourist attractions in Muscat, Oman Ibadi mosques Grand mosques Mosque buildings with minarets in Asia

Construction

Interior

Gallery

See also

References

External links