The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque is a significant mosque in the Sultanate of Oman. It was inaugurated by Sultan Qaboos on May 4, 2001. Construction of the mosque began in 1995 and was completed in six years and four months. The mosque is made of sandstone and covers an area of 416,000 square meters, with the complex extending to 40,000 square meters.
The main prayer hall has a square shape with external dimensions of 74.4 meters and aisles, accommodating up to 20,000 worshippers. The mosque features a central dome that reaches a height of 50 meters above the ground, while the main minaret and dome stand at 90 meters. Additionally, there are four other minarets measuring 45.5 meters each.
One of the notable interior aspects is the prayer rug, which covers the entire prayer hall floor. This rug contains 1,700,000,000 knots, weighs 21 tons, and took four years to manufacture. It is handwoven by the Iran Carpet Company, using 28 colors obtained from traditional vegetable dyes. The rug is the second largest one-piece carpet globally, measuring over 70 x 60 meters and covering an area of 4,343 square meters.
The mosque also boasts a 14-meter-long chandelier manufactured by the German company Faustig, above the prayer hall. Visitors can explore the mosque free of charge during specific visiting hours, which are from eight o’clock in the morning until half past eleven in the morning, from Saturday to Thursday. Women are required to wear long clothing and a head covering when visiting the mosque.
