Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque .. Icon of the Sultanate of Oman

<p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr">Arabiaweather.com - Ismail Qasimi - In the city of Muscat, you will be dazzled by a group of wonderful tourist attractions, perhaps the most prominent of which are museums and historical buildings, but it is the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque that will be your first destination in the Sultanate of Oman.</p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"></p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"> <strong>The Sultan Qaboos Mosque</strong> is located in the heart of the city of Muscat in the Wilayat of Bawshar. It occupies an area of 416,000 square metres. It is a religious, scientific and cultural center that reflects the status of the Sultanate throughout its Islamic history.</p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"></p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"> The mosque was opened in 2001 by order of Sultan Qaboos, after work on it continued for a period of 6 years of continuous work. It has five minarets that symbolize the pillars of Islam, and each minaret rises about 45 meters. </p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/uploads/Sultan-Qaboos-Grand-Mosque%20%281%29.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 534px;" /></p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"> The design of this architectural masterpiece is attributed to the architect Muhammad Salih Makiya, and the design combines authentic Islamic architecture, international modernity and the future of modern design, while maintaining the prevailing Omani principle in building mosques in terms of their height over the rest of the buildings.</p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"></p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"> The yellowish color of the mosque is due to the use of creamy white sandstones. In the sanctuary of the prayer halls, arabescato was used in the cladding, while the light purple stones clad the walls of the corridors and other facilities.</p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"></p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"> The carpet on the floor of the chapel is the largest Persian carpet in the world. It was made in the Iranian city of Mashhad and is 70 meters long and 60 meters wide. It consists of 1,700 million knots, while its weight is 21 tons. </p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/uploads/Sultan-Qaboos-Grand-Mosque-2.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 450px;" /></p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"></p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"> The prayer halls, in their entirety, can accommodate about 20,000 worshipers, and the library is among the most important mosque facilities, with a total of more than 20,000 volumes on various Islamic and human sciences.</p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"></p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"> The northern corridors of the mosque also include a number of halls designed with architectural styles that take you to different and distinctive heritage periods that express Arab and Islamic arts from Andalusia to China.</p>