Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque Muscat

I have just returned from a week in Musat, Oman where I had the most fantastic time. It is a beautiful country and I saw some amazing sights.

On Thursday my sister and I visited the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque.

The first thing we had to do to get to the Mosque was hail a taxi and then negotiate a price. My younger sister who lives in Muscat (but was working that day so couldn't give us a lift) had told us what price it should be. The bargaining with taxi drivers was painful for us but we continued to haggle and got all the taxis for the price we wanted. On this occasion the first taxi we hailed wouldn't entertain the price we offered so we hailed the next one and got it for 2 Rial (about 5 euro).

When we got to the Grand Mosque we walked up through the stunning gardens to the entrance.

As you enter the mosque there is a sign with the dress code. You must wear long sleeves to the wrist and trousers to the ankle and women must also cover their head. You must also take your shoes off when you enter the prayer rooms.

The mosque is very beautiful and is covered in the most wonderful marble that is so nice underfoot. There is a lovely calm serene feeling outside.

The main prayer hall has a magnificent chandelier in the certain of it. The scale is massive - it has to be seen to believed!

The large prayer hall can accommodate 6,500 men with the ladies prayer room holding 750 women. In total the mosque can accommodate 20,000 people.

It also has the largest single piece of carpet in the world which took 4 years to make!!

No trip to Muscat would be complete without a visit to the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque. It should also be noted that abaya's are available to rent if you don't have a long sleeved top so don't let the dress code be a deterrent.

For further info about the Grand Mosque, read here or for a 360 degree panoramic tour, click here. The wiki page also has some interesting facts about the mosque.