The huge building shimmers white in the sun and the dome glistens. One of the most impressive buildings in Oman is located in Muscat and we didn’t want to miss out on visiting the Sultan Qabus Grand Mosque.
Where is the mosque located?
If you are traveling on the main road between Muscat and Sib, you cannot miss the Grand Mosque. The building, which shines brightly in the sun, stands on an area of over 40 hectares and is easy to reach by car.
There is a large free parking lot in front of the main entrance. In the morning hours on visiting days, it is no problem to find a parking space. From the parking lot, we started our visit through the Sultan Qabus Grand Mosque.
Important information before your visit!!!
The Sultan Qabus Grand Mosque is the only mosque in Oman that is also open to non-Muslims. From Saturday to Thursday from 8-11 a.m. it is possible to take a free tour of the grounds. There are men standing in front of the main entrance who offer to accompany you on the tour and provide information (for a fee, of course). In my opinion, this is not absolutely necessary. There are information boards in some places and you can also borrow an audio guide.
At the entrance, care is taken to ensure that some rules are observed. Men must wear long pants. Even if the faithful would actually prefer men to have their arms covered, a shirt with short sleeves is also permitted. However, brightly printed T-shirts are not welcome.
When entering the grounds, women must wear clothing that covers their arms and legs and is not too transparent. In addition, a scarf must be worn to cover the hair and neck. This was rather unusual for me, but our tour guide on the day paid very close attention to this and helped to secure the scarf as well as possible so that it didn’t accidentally slip.
The control at the entrance ensures that the dress code is adhered to. It is possible to buy headscarves.
On a sign I discovered further instructions, such as the ban on smoking, eating and drinking (would have been forbidden in Ramadan anyway). Children under the age of 10 are not allowed to visit the mosque.
Photography is allowed as long as it does not disturb a worshipper in prayer!
Construction of the mosque
In 1992, Sultan Qabus decided to build a central mosque for Oman. He wanted to build the largest mosque in the country, where hundreds of worshippers could attend Friday prayers at the same time and where the faith could be taught and spread in “training rooms”.
It only took a year for the royal court to give nine renowned architectural firms the task of creating a design as part of a small competition. A joint design by two architectural firms from London won, and they quickly began work on the project.
Before the first stone could be laid, the building site was first dug up. In keeping with tradition, mosques are always built on elevated sites. After six years, the project was completed and the Sultan Qabus Grand Mosque was named after the Sultan at the inauguration. Now the faithful could pray and the mosque was also opened to non-believers.
View of the Great Sultan Qabus Mosque
The entire mosque complex consists of the large men’s prayer hall, a smaller women’s prayer hall, five minarets, two large archways, a library and the Islamic information center. There are also rooms for the traditional ablution before prayer and large open spaces, which are also used by the faithful to pray during Friday prayers.
There are two entrances. The main entrance, through which we can also enter the grounds, and a special entrance for women only. However, this is only open during prayer times. Entry is free of charge!
The library building is located directly behind the main entrance. There are around 20,000 books on three floors, which not only deal with Islam, but also with scientific topics, for example.
The Islamic Information Centre is also located in the immediate vicinity. We had assumed that we would find some kind of exhibition on the mosque here. However, it is purely a training centre. We were immediately taken in by an Omani who wanted to explain the benefits of Islam to us. Not quite what we had imagined, but he quickly realised that our interest did not match his own. However, if you are interested, there are lectures in English every second Sunday that you can attend.
The mosque’s archways (rivag) are particularly beautiful. Here you will find small niches with different designs. Information panels tell you about the architectural styles and their chronological classification. Even here, visitors can recognise the use of marble and ceramics, which provide the first clues as to the building materials.
A total of 300,000 tonnes of Indian sandstone were needed to build the complex. Other fine materials were also used, such as Italian marble in the courtyards, which is always somewhat cool despite the enormous amount of sunlight.
The entrances to the washrooms for men and women are also located in the archways. This is where the ritual cleansing takes place before prayer.
The open space around the mosque is also used by worshippers for prayer during Friday prayers. The capacity of the prayer rooms is often insufficient. The paved outdoor area offers space for a total of 8,000 worshippers.
Minarets
The first thing that catches my eye are the minarets. There are five minarets in total, which are supposed to represent the five pillars of Islam. The five pillars of Islam are confession, prayer, almsgiving, fasting and pilgrimage.
The main minaret is 91.5 metres high and stands in the middle of the mosque grounds. The four other minarets are located at the four corners of the grounds. These are somewhat smaller and are ‘only’ 45 metres high.
Today, the iman no longer has to climb up into the minaret and call people to prayer from there. Today, loudspeakers take over this task.
Women’s prayer hall
We first visited the women’s prayer hall. However, as is usual when visiting a mosque, we first had to take off our shoes and deposit them in one of the shelves at the entrance door.
We entered a large room. A prayer mat covers the floor. It is divided into individual fields pointing towards Mecca. There is room for one person to pray in each field. The large clocks made of 14-carat gold and the nine gilded crystal chandeliers in Ottoman style are striking. Otherwise, the room is clad in precious teak wood, but (and we were to realise this later) is much simpler than the men’s prayer hall.
Around 750 women can pray in the prayer room at the same time. During Friday prayers, the iman’s prayer is broadcast live on a video screen in the women’s room. When I asked why the space was much smaller than for the men, I was told that most women pray at home. Children are only allowed to attend prayers in the mosque from a certain age and the women then look after them at home.
Men’s prayer hall
At the end of our tour, we entered the men’s prayer hall through a large hand-carved entrance door. What a huge room! The room measures 74.4 metres x 74.4 metres and 6,500 worshippers can pray here at the same time. The mosque is not at full capacity at all 5 prayer times of the day. But on Fridays it can be difficult to find a seat.
We are not allowed to enter the entire room. A blue carpet, which we are not allowed to leave, shows us the way. This carpet not only serves to protect the prayer rug, in the Muslim faith non-believers are not allowed to enter the prayer rug either.
The first thing I notice is the carpet that fills almost the entire prayer room. The prayer rug measures 4293.45 square metres and is a truly unique piece. For three years, 600 Iranian carpet weavers worked on this carpet. The great difficulty – there is no machine, no carpet weaving loom on which it is possible to produce a carpet of these dimensions. Smaller pieces of carpet were therefore initially created. As the carpet has a pattern, these had to be made in such a way that a seamless transition was created.
Once the unimaginable number of 1.7 billion knots had been created, the pieces were taken to Oman. There, the pieces were then sewn together to form a large carpet. After 4 months, it was finished and the 22-tonne carpet was in the men’s prayer room.
A 50 metre high dome rises in the middle of the prayer room. One of the largest chandeliers in the world hangs here. Over 1100 lamps shine into the room. The gold-plated metal (8×14 metres) is decorated with Swarovski stones. The construction weighs a total of 8 tonnes. Matching smaller chandeliers are hung throughout the prayer room.
We pass a beautifully designed prayer niche. This is orientated towards Mecca and the Iman also speaks from there, for example.
Is it worth the visit?
For us, the visit to the mosque was definitely the highlight of the city tour in Muscat. I had never had the opportunity to visit a mosque from the inside before and admittedly didn’t really have any idea what it was like.
The Sultan Qabus Grand Mosque is a magnificent mosque that not only impressively presents the wealth of Oman, but also Muslim culture.
For us, the Sultan Qabus Grand Mosque is one of the top sights in Oman.
Visitor information
Address:
Sultan Qaboos St,
Muscat, Oman
Opening hours of the Sultan Qabus Grand Mosque
Non-Muslims
Saturday-Thursday: 8-11 a.m.
Admission fee
Admission is free of charge.
Dress code
Clothing with long sleeves and legs is compulsory.
All women need a headscarf to cover their hair. Headscarves can be purchased on site and long clothing can be rented.
Shoes are prohibited in the prayer halls.
The visit to the Sultan Qabus Grand Mosque took place at the invitation of the InterContinental Muscat.
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