Thursday 26 July 2018

There be Niches

Visiting the Mosque
One of the more spectacular tourism sites in Muscat is undoubtedly the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque. The Sultan commissioned it in the nineties and it was finished and opened to the public in 2001.  If you travel around Oman you will see Grand Mosques in cities of any size, these were all built by the Sultan, from this personal funds.

The Grand Mosques are all different and from what we have seen reflect something of the local architecture and or culture.

The one in Muscat is the largest and the grandest. It has many "features" such as the largest chandelier in the world, a main prayer hall that can accommodate over 6,600 worshippers and artistic touches reflecting a range of Islamic styles, along with a library and non-denominational Islamic study centre.

When we have visitors it is one of the places we highly recommend and usually take people to, as it is open to non-Muslims for 3 hours a day.  Everything is kept in spic and span shape, by an army of maintenance workers, which makes me wonder if the great cathedrals of Europe were treated the same in their new-built glory.

As I've just bought myself a new tripod I decided that a fitting first serious use of it would be to visit the Grand Mosque and take photo's of the 96 decorative niches that adorn the cloisters on either side of the mosque (North and South). I am reasonable happy with the results, but will go back at some point to retake some to get a more consistent framing, but for a first attempt at something like this.... and it was hot - even in the shaded, breezy cloisters.


The Main Prayer Hall


I haven't found anything that denotes a sequence of viewing, with the only reference listing the artistic styles, South and then North. But to me I always like to start with Oman at the "far" end of the North cloister and work my way from there to finish at the modern interpretations. Along the way much of the Islamic world is covered, along with some pre-Islamic styles, stretching from the Arabian Peninsula, up to Persia, across to Egypt and Spain.

So here's a link to my pdf of the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque niches (all 96 of them)
https://1drv.ms/b/s!AoB9wjRkziP6gZw7rJEBBRkwlwuXfQ



Cheers


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