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The mosque will captivate not only your eyes but also your heart and you feel a hypnotic pull towards it.
There's no train to Abu Dhabi. And assuming you don't want to take a flight/drive / taxi - as was the case with some of us - the bus is most comfortable. Board from Al Ghubaiba/ Ibn Batuta bus station. Carry a book, stretch your legs, eat an apple. You reach in an hour and a half. But once in Abu Dhabi, take a cab to the mosque. The taxi meter there is cheaper than in Dubai, so you can reach the mosque from the bus station for under Dh30.
As you approach the vicinity of this beautiful grand mosque, there is nothing that you will notice but this white marbel structure that you cannot help but marvel. It will captivate not only your eyes but also your heart and you feel a hypnotic pull towards it.
Here's why you should visit/ revisit the mosque:
Of course the weather is just perfect to enjoy and absorb the beauty of the mosque. There is a certain stillness and calm once you step inside the mosque. However, much disturbance or commotion there maybe outside, but once you set in foot in to this architectural work of art, you will feel every kind of noise from within or outside subsides.
1. For the natural light: Pay attention. As you drive up to the mosque, and depending on the time of the day, the white marble structure - four minarets, 138 domes - radiates colours of the sky, the sun and the moon. The evening blue light appears different everyday. Plan your visit to the mosque about a couple of hours before sunset (stay for sunset). Soak in the beauty and intracacies of the architecture by daylight and then watch the receeding sunlight through the pillars. The grandeur of the mosque is magnificient during the day and after sunset as soon as the mosque is lit up with lights, its huge courtyard begins to feel magical as if you are in some fairytale land.
2. Architecture and floral motifs All that marble work, and the floral vines at the eastern foyer. The influences of Mughal and Moorish design. Blue plumbago carved on to the walls, lilies on the marble floorings. The details need to be zoomed into. See if the leaves of Pergularia Tomentosa look familiar. It is quite a possibility that you have seen them grow in the desert? In Arabic it's ghalqah.
The colours of the walls, columns and the carpet are harmonised transforming the entire mosque into a symphony of colours and shades. Also, innovative techniques were used for the decoration of crowned columns. The crowns are not located on the top of the columns but at the bottom.
3. Photography: The mosque is 84,000m of a selfie haven - If that's your thing. Be warned though: posers are everywhere. But they can be overlooked, and you can focus on the archways and minarets. There are so many aspects to the grand Mosque from stunning interiors to domes and minarets and fountains to the beautiful pillars with inlaid flowers. That one is almost spoiled for choice.
4. Attire: A chance for non-Muslims to wear an abaya (the black robe worn by Muslim women). These are provided to them for free. To adhere to 'mosque manners' women have to turn up in loose, covered clothes, and a headscarf. Not even a bit of wrist can flash. And if a little skin does show, they politely tell you to head to the clothing section underground, near the parking lot, to cover up fully. Men are allowed more leeway.
5. Tourism tick mark: The weather is great to be outdoors and do something touristy. Plus you get to see where singer Rihanna posed and faced flak for inappropriate/ disrespectful poses and was asked to leave. Rihanna was asked to leave the Shaikh Zayed Grand Mosque after posing for pictures that did not 'conform to conditions' of the religious monument.
6. Free lesson in manners: Entrance is free. But the when-in-Rome logic applies. The mosque is a reminder to abide by the rules and respect the ways and tradition of another culture. Visitors can do with reminding themselves the mosque is a place of worship, the loud talking and laughing needs to stop, and shrieking children reigned in. And when the guards tell you to not pose without your head covered, obey.
7. Beats being in a mall: A family from Italy had flown down to Abu Dhabi for the weekend to relax. The only touristy thing they did was visit the mosque. One sees more nationalities in this mosque than one does in a mall perhaps. It's a great place to observe people, too.
courtesy from: http://www.khaleejtimes.com/
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