Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat (must see)

The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque stands as the primary mosque in the Sultanate of Oman. Its inception dates back to 1992 when Sultan Qaboos envisioned the establishment of a grand mosque for his country. A design competition ensued in 1993, and construction began in 1995 at the chosen site in Bausher. Carillion Alawi LLC undertook the six-year and four-month-long construction project.

Crafted from 300,000 tonnes of Indian sandstone, the mosque boasts impressive architectural features. The main prayer hall, measuring 74.4 x 74.4 meters externally, showcases a central dome soaring fifty meters above the floor. The dome, along with the main minaret standing at 90 meters and four flanking minarets at 45.5 meters each, defines the mosque's visual allure. Accommodating over 6,500 worshippers in the main musalla and 750 in the women's musalla, the outer paved ground can hold an additional 8,000 worshippers. With available space in the interior courtyard and passageways, the mosque can host up to 20,000 worshippers in total.

A highlight of the mosque's interior design is the prayer carpet adorning the prayer hall floor. This intricate carpet, featuring 1,700,000 knots, weighs 21 tonnes and took four years to complete. It combines design elements from classical Tabriz, Kashan, and Isfahan traditions, spanning over 70 x 60 meters and covering the entire 4,343 square meter area of the prayer hall in a single piece. Remarkably, it ranks as the world's second-largest single-piece carpet.