Tuesday, April 10, 2018, Muscat, Oman (2 of 2)

Today's blog post is the second half of our stop at Muscat, Oman.  We were very pleasantly surprised but impressed with our visit here.  We have not seen such a clean country Australia and New Zealand.  Our tour guide was exceptionally knowledgeable and friendly.  The buildings are huge and very modern.

Our first stop on today's shore excursion was at the Bait al Zubair Museum, The Home of Heritage and Art.  We were not permitted to take pictures inside the museum but we could outside.

The museum has an extensive collection of ancient weapons, including khanjar, household equipments,and costumes (most of which derive from the owner's private collection). Outside the museum is a full-scale Omani village and souk.

A Brief Tour of Bait al Zubair Museum, Muscat video on YouTube

Note AC in this thatch building.

Model village.

Door to offices at museum.  Our tour guide today.

Royal Palace; Sultan lives at a second palace about 20 miles away.

Royal Palace office buildings.

Visiting quarters.

On our way via bus to Grand Mosque.

Note caves in cliffs.

Plummeria shrubs.

Date palm trees.  Note clean, modern apartment building.

Honda car dealership.

Huge office building opposite side of freeway from Grand Mosque.

In 1992 Sultan Qaboos directed that his country of Oman should have a Grand Mosque.  A competition for its design took place in 1993 and after a site was chosen at Bausher construction commenced in December 1994.  Building work, which was undertaken by Carillion Alawi LLC took six years and seven months.

The mosque is built from 300,000 tons of Indian sandstone.  The main musalla (prayer hall) is square (external dimensions 74.4 x 74.4 meters) with a central dome rising to a height of fifty meters above the floor.  The dome and the main minaret (90 meters) and four flanking minarets (45.5 meters) are the mosque’s chief visual features.  The main musalla can hold over 6,500 worshipers, while the women’s musalla can accommodate 750 worshipers.  The outer paved ground can hold 8,000 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 416,000 square meters and the complex extends to cover an area of 40,000 square meters.  The newly built Grand Mosque was inaugurated by Sultan of Oman on May 4, 2001.

A major feature of the design of the interior is the prayer carpet which covers the floor of the prayer hall.  It contains, 1,700,000,000 knots, weighs 21 tons and took four years to produce, and brings together the classical Persian Tabriz, Kashan, and Isfahan design traditions.  28 colors in varying shades were used, the majority obtained from traditional vegetable dyes.  It is the second largest single piece carpet in the world.  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 70 × 60 meters, and covers the 4,343 square meter area of the praying hall.  The chandelier above the praying hall is 14 meters tall and was manufactured by company Faustig from Italy.  It is the world’s largest chandelier.

Under ground hoses for watering flowers, shrubs, and lawns.

Expatriate workers.  Over a million in Oman, from India, Africa, Bangladesh, etc.

Another mosque; we saw dozens today.  On our way toward cruise ship terminal; will make a stop at a bazaar.

Our local tour guide; he demonstrated tying his turban.

More huge car dealerships.

Bazaar shopping area.