Sheikh Zayed Great Mosque in Abu Dhabi, UAE, was opened in Dec 2007 and is one of the world’s ten biggest Musjids with a total capacity of 40,000 worshippers. The project took 12 years to complete at a cost of 2.167 billion UAE dirhams.
It has 3 entries into the Guinness Book of World Records with the largest carpet, the biggest chandelier and the largest dome of its kind in the world. The Musjid was built on a platform 9 meters above ground level at the main entrance of Abu Dhabi. The general plan is modelled from Moroccan Musjids, combined with domed Ottoman Musjid architecture. It has a large prayer hall and 2 small prayer rooms, one for females. The halls open into a courtyard surrounded by arcaded galleries of pointed horse-shoe North African arches.
The total building area is 22,412m², the size of 5 football fields. The entire structure is clad in marble. The prayer hall can hold 7,000 worshippers. There are 82 domes crowning the roof of the Musjid. The largest is 85m high, the biggest of its kind in the world. The dome carries the largest chandelier in the world made of thousands of crystals arranged in 24 carat gold plated stainless steel frame.
The floor of the prayer hall is covered with one of the largest carpets ever made. It has a total area of 7,119m², made from 2,268,000 knots, weighing 47 tons: 35 tons wool, and 12 tons cotton. The courtyard of the Musjid covers 17,000m² and can hold 30,000 worshippers. There are over 1,000 columns and four minarets, 107m high. A series of reflective water ponds and lakes which cover an area of 7874m² surrounding the Musjid.
Sheikh Zayed Great Mosque
