Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque

The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque is the largest mosque in Oman, in the capital city of Muscat. It was finished in 2001 in a contemporary Islamic style, and it can hold 20,000 worshippers. In 1992 the Sultan, Qaboos bin Said, decided his country should have a Grand Mosque, and a design competition was held in 1993.

Building started in December 1994 at a site called Bausher and took six years and seven months. About 270,000 tonnes of Indian sandstone were imported to make it. Five minarets were built around it: the main one is 90 metres high, and four smaller ones are 45.5 metres each. Inside, the main prayer hall covers 5,476 square metres and has a central dome 50 metres above the floor.

What is the famous carpet?

The prayer-hall floor is covered by a single carpet with 1.7 million knots. It weighs 21 tonnes and took four years and over 600 workers to make. It blends classic Persian designs from Tabriz, Kashan, and Isfahan, and it uses 28 colors, most of them from natural plant dyes. When it was made it was one of the largest hand-woven carpets in the world.

What about the chandelier?

A giant chandelier hangs in the mosque. It is 14 metres high and was made by the Italian company Faustig. It weighs 7.7 tonnes and has 600,000 crystals. It was the world's largest chandelier until the Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi was finished in 2018. The main prayer hall can hold over 6,500 worshippers, and the women's hall holds 750.

On the globe

The model shows white marble halls under a latticed golden dome, a 90 m main minaret, and a hand-woven carpet that was once the world's largest.