It’s over two years since I spent a half term visiting a teaching friend in Muscat. Our holidays didn’t match up and so on the first day, whilst she was in school, I took myself out to explore. The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque seemed the obvious place to start.
The vast whiteness with occasional splashes of colour was calming and peaceful and just looking at the marble made me feel cooler.
The mosque has the world’s 2nd largest single piece carpet in the main prayer hall. A huge chandelier hangs from the massive central dome and young schoolboys on a school trip ran around excitedly taking photos with ipads before sitting and listening to their teacher.
After a couple of hours looking around, the call to prayer sounded and I thought I’d have to leave. On my way to the exit I stumbled across a room of women who were sitting chatting and drinking tea. They seemed more interested in catching up on gossip than praying and invited me inside to join them.
I sat with them for at least an hour enjoying their company and learning far more about Oman than I would otherwise have done.
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Have you visited any spectacular mosques? Leave a recommendation in the comments below.
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