Without a doubt the most marketed site of the UAE, the Sheikh Zayed mosque is a must-see in Abu Dhabi. Finished in the 2000s, it is the largest mosque of the country with a capacity of about 40,000 worshippers and also the site of the tomb of Sheikh Zayed. And more importantly, it is one of these famous places that don’t disappoint when you see them for real!
It is located about 20 km north of the center, in an unspectacular neighborhood, but can be reached quite easily by bus! Yeah! Again, I was the only one getting off the bus at the closest stop 15 walking minutes away… I loved walking to the mosque. You know this feeling when you see an iconic place at the horizon and you get closer and closer? And when the excitement gets bigger and bigger? It is hard not to think about the Taj Mahal, which is not a coincidence since Persian and Mughal architecture were the main inspiration! The mosque is in the middle of a huge gated park with parking lot.
After crossing the main gate, I saw the hundreds of tourist buses on the parking lot and realized I wouldn’t be alone…
Although it was very busy, the tourist flow was perfectly directed and the experience was enjoyable. The main entrance is located in one of two domes a few hundred meters away of the mosque. Before reaching the underground visitor center, you are reminded of the dress code for a mosque visit.
After registering on a tablet to get a free entrance ticket, you are screened for your outfit before X-ray control. Tourist ladies get a robe with hoodie to cover their heads . You are then directed through a never ending underground tunnel which leads to the front of the mosque.
What an elegant building! Tons of white marble… and a long list of superlatives as the UAE loves them: the world’s biggest chandeliers (built by a German company with Swarovski crystals), the world’s largest carpet (hand-knotted in Iran), the world’s largest marble mosaic, etc…
I was quite impressed by the love for details and the stunning artisan work, although some elements were a bit too much for my taste… The ridge between beautiful and kitsch is often thin…
Enjoy the (many!) pictures!
Unfortunately, some visitors tend to forget that a mosque is a place of worship and not an amusement park. It is allowed to take pictures and selfies but security staff needs to prevent tourists from fooling around and making stupid poses. Any trial to take a picture other than standing normally was efficiently (and aggressively) stopped by the staff! By the way, I know somebody who loves reading gossip magazines – not me of course… hahaha! –, and he told me that Rihanna got kicked out of the mosque for “not meeting the standards of decency” and sitting in “disrespectful positions”. Among the stupid behaviors I observed, a lot of girls were removing the hoodie to show their hair on the pictures. But the first price goes to Chinese tourists. I think anyone who visited busy touristic sites had some bad experience with Chinese groups. It is unbelievable how they manage to combine loudness and disrespect! I took a picture of a group getting ready to enter… They were all wearing the same robes (shopped on Wish or Alibaba?) to look super Arabic on the millions of pictures they will take: the ladies with a black and gold robe and the guys with a traditional white robe (although it’s absolutely not necessary as long as you wear covering clothes). They were obviously incredibly loud and so happy and proud of their outfits, posing non-stop. The few who weren’t busy taking pictures were yelling on their phones while visiting. Any trial of the security to control them failed and was welcomed by a silly laugh or a question-mark face…
Free like a bear 