United Arab Emirates (UAE). Abu Dhabi. Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is the largest mosque in the UAE. The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque has many special and unique elements: The carpet in the main prayer hall is considered to be the world's largest carpet made by Iran's Carpet Company and designed by Iranian artist Ali Khaliqi. This carpet measures 5,627 m2, and was made by around 1,200-1,300 carpet knotters. The weight of this carpet is 35 ton and is predominantly made from wool (originating from New Zealand and Iran). There are 2,268,000,000 knots within the carpet and it took approximately two years to complete. The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque has seven imported chandeliers from the company Faustig in Munich, Germany that incorporate millions of Swarovski crystals. A man working as a guard were the traditional white thobe. A thawb (thobe, dishdasha, kandora) is an ankle-length garment, usually with long sleeves, similar to a robe, kaftan or tunic, commonly worn in the Arabian Peninsula. The headdress is called ghutrah. The Grand Mosque was constructed between 1996 and 2007. It was designed by Syrian architect Yousef Abdelky. The building complex measures approximately 290 by 420 m covering an area of more than 12 hectares (30 acres), excluding exterior landscaping and vehicle parking. The main axis of the building is rotated about 11° south of true west, aligning it in the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The mosque is large enough to accommodate over 40,000 worshippers, while the main prayer hall can hold over 7,000. There are two smaller prayer halls, with a capacity of 1,500 each, one of which is the women's prayer hall. There are four minarets on the four corners of the courtyard which rise about 107 m in height. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a country in Western Asia at the northeast end of the Arabian Peninsula. 20.02.2020 © 2020 Didier Ruef