Learning to Trust and Lean: Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque

The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque is a sight to behold and see if you come to Muscat, Oman. Warning: lots of pictures to come in this post.

The exterior corridor on one side of the mosque. Two of the five minarets are also seen here.

A view over the gardens to the mountains beyond.

In this picture, the front building is the women's prayer room and the back building is the main prayer room.

The mosque is open to visitors and is free. You can pay for an audio tour, but we didn't use that option. There are also plenty of locals willing and eager to share their knowledge. I imagine they would appreciate a tip, but again we didn't use that option, either. The mosque does close to visitors for prayer times. Visit in the morning any day of the week 8am to 11am are the only hours I can confirm.

Parking is easy and abundant as long as the mosque is not overly crowded. It is best to go early. The earlier you go, the sparser the crowds. Also, this is Oman. The later you go, the warmer it will be. It is also best to head right once inside to tour the exterior corridor before arriving at the prayer room. There are less crowds this direction.

You need to be particularly careful of dress when you visit the Grand Mosque. Culture here in Oman and the Middle East already dictates that women are covered knees to shoulders. At the Grand Mosque, the requirement for women is ankles to wrists plus a head covering. Also be careful of scoop-necked or v-neck shirts unless your head covering will also cover this area of your body. (speaking from experience here). I was please with how the ROP officials at the entrance to the mosque handled pointing out our inefficiencies in dress. They smiled and pointed (often on their own bodies) at what needed to be covered. They pointed out hair exposed and my exposed neck line. I didn't feel chastised in the least. However, it is obvious that those inside are not as strict as I saw many women whose head wraps had loosened and exposed hair. And mine even struggled as we can all see in the below picture.

Behind me, you can see the tallest minaret.

The Grand Mosque is surrounded by beautiful gardens. There are flowering bushes out front between the mosque and Sultan Qaboos Street. Inside the corridors, you walk through a garden with fountains, trees, and flower beds before reaching the main buildings.

Beautiful stretch of flower beds as seen from a minaret.

Some of the fountains in the garden. For this angle on the fountain, head right as you enter the mosque as this fountain runs perpendicular to the most direct path to the prayer rooms.

As mentioned before, the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque has outdoor corridors. These are on both the north and south sides of the prayer rooms. The 5 minarets are connected by these corridors on their respective sides. At the ends, you can walk up some stairs to get a higher view of the gardens. Inside the corridors, you will see similar architecture to parts of the Royal Opera House Muscat. This must be the Oman style. The ceiling is wood with geometric details, and the ornate lanterns are similar in style to the lanterns on the exterior of the building at the opera house. Along the north and south walls, there are alcoves of various designs. These represent the artistic styles through time and region. All the alcoves in one area will be the same or similar until you reach the next section of the corridor. Below are some, though certainly not all, of the designs.

A view down the long corridor. Note the ceiling and lantern styles.

We had fun using the alcoves to frame ourselves for pictures. In this one, Mamaw joined the picture.

This design is more simplistic.

Yet another, more intricate design.

Last one, I promise. As you can see, I had both kids cover up ankles to wrists just to be on the safe side.

Inside the prayer rooms is a sight to behold. Please note that children under 10 cannot enter the prayer rooms. We took turns hanging outside with the boys. You also must remove your shoes, though there are plenty of cubby holes for depositing them. And you must stay on the hideous blue carpet they have laid over their large, hand-knotted rug. This rug was the largest in the world at one point, but I'm not sure it is any more. The main prayer room also houses the once largest chandelier in the world. Abu Dhabi, not to be outdone, now has a larger chandelier. There is intricate mosaic work on the inside of the dome and along the walls. There are ornate wooden doors to be seen and stained glass windows. The women's prayer room is a separate building because Muslim men and women do not pray and worship together. It is not nearly as large or ornate, but there are still some beautiful aspects. Below are some pictures that don't do either hall justice.

The chandelier inside the large dome

A closer up view of the detail surrounding the dome.

The center of the back wall as you enter. Look at that detail!

In this picture, you can see the massive columns holding up the roof and the massive carpet. I had to strategically take this picture so that the ugly blue rug was not seen.

A mosaic along the wall

These arcades run along the sides of the prayer room.

A wooden door in the women's prayer room

A view of the full styling of the women's prayer room

Below are the last few pictures of the trip that I just couldn't bear not to post. We had a partly cloudy day, so I took full advantage of the beautiful skies and weather for outdoor pictures.