Wādī al Khalīl

The women’s prayer room (musalla) is a 'small' hall which can hold 750 worshippers at a time. It is smaller because most women pray at home. The decor includes handcarved wooden doors and a wooden roof. The chandeliers are much simpler than those of the main prayer hall which accommodates 6500. All in all, by using the courtyards around the hall, 20,000 people can attend services.

The mosque used to have the world’s largest carpet and chandelier, but Emiratis and Qataris came, measured the interior and made bigger versions in new mosques to steal the title.
The Persian carpet in the main hall measures 70m by 60m, weighs 21 tons and was woven over 4 years by 600 Iranian women. They made it in 85 pieces which were knotted together in situ, a total of 1,700 million knots.
Of course, visitors mainly come to see the German lights. The 2nd largest chandelier in the world hangs from the centre point:
* 14m tall, 8m diameter
* 8.5 tons
* 1122 halogen bulbs
* 600,000 glass beads (sorry, Swarovski "crystal')
* gold plated metalwork
The inside of the chandelier has complex electrical circuitry which requires access for maintenance purposes which is made possible by
Staircases and platforms inside the middle of the chandelier allow access for maintenance of the 36, complex switching circuits.
The chandelier is designed with a large central minaret and twenty four smaller minarets circled around it to produce its characteristic shape. There are thirty four other chandeliers of the same design but of smaller proportion hung at other locations within the mosque.

The mosaic niche is called 'The Qiblah', referring to the direction that Muslims face when engaged in ritual prayerRead more