Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque

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During his visit to Muscat, Oman, Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney tours the country's massive Grand Mosque, the site of which which spans an area of about 416,000 square metres, March 16, 2002

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 1995. Building work took six years and four months.

The Mosque is built from 300,000 tonnes of Indian sandstone. The main musalla (prayer hall) is square (external dimensions 74.4 x 74.4 metres) with a central dome rising to a height of fifty metres above the floor. The dome and the main minaret (90 metres) and four flanking minarets (45.5 metres) are the mosque’s chief visual features. The main musalla can hold over 6,500 worshippers, while the women’s musalla can accommodate 750 worshippers. The outer paved ground can hold 8,000 worshippers and there is additional space available in the interior courtyard and the passageways, making a total capacity of up to 20,000 worshippers.

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 million knots, weighs 21 tonnes and took four years to produce, and brings together the classical Tabriz, Kashan and Isfahan design traditions. 28 colours in varying shades were used, the majority obtained from traditional vegetable dyes. It is the largest single piece carpet in the world. The world's largest hand-woven carpet was produced by Iran Carpet Company (ICC) at the order of the Diwan of the Royal Court of Sultanate of Oman to cover the entire floor of the main praying hall of the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque (SQGM) in Muscat. The carpet measures over 70 × 60 meters, and covers the 4343 square meter area of the praying hall, all in a single piece.

The Mosque is built on a site occupying 416,000 square metres and the complex extends to cover an area of 40,000 square metres. The newly built Grand Mosque was inaugurated by Sultan of Oman on May 4, 2001.