Whoa! We stepped out of the coach into what felt like a blast from the blast furnace at the steelworks in Wollongong. The heat was intense, the air dry and hazy but the vista of the glistening white Abu Dhabi Mosque was breathtaking. We looked at the distance between our coach parking spot and the entrance of the mosque but to our surprise we only had to walk 10 metres to a glass dome because unbeknown to us this is one of 6 entrances into the mosque building we could see in the distance. Each dome leads down to a wide underground tunnel system that is airconditioned and tiled in marble. The series of tunnels also house refreshment rooms, toilet facilities and a security checkpoint that we needed to pass through before joining the crowds along the final underground tunnel passage which opened into a large underground vestibule with more facilities. There were also locker rooms for luggage storage and hajab gowns with hoods that women could hire so that they were suitably attrired to enter the mosque.
Abu Dhabi is a Muslim country with strict dress codes for women and men to abide by. Large explicit signage clearly depicted the dress code regulations at the final tunnel entrance to the mosque. Inspection officers stood at the ready to ensure compliance. I had a damp scarf around my neck to keep me cool so I used it to cover my head, tucking it under my Princess cap ( which Ken had won as part of his prize for winning the mini olympics competition) and under my chin.
Having passed inspection we rode an escalator up into an exit glass dome and we found ourselves on the outside marble parapet that surrounds the exterior wall of the mosque complex. We walked through one of the many carved Islamic archways that took us through the wall into an outer courtyard. We stood and admired one of the four rectangular brilliant blue tiled pools that runs alongside the outer courtyard. The pool with its perfect reflection of the wall alongside it, was very calming and beautiful to behold. It is amazing to realise that once this area had been a dry treeless, desolate and barren land and now it not only has green corridors, grassed lawns but water in abundance due to modern destination techniques which provides pure, fresh water- the one essentially ingredient needed for life all ver our world. to maintained. What. an impressively magnificent building this Abu Dhabi Mosque is proving to be! And we haven't seen its innermost rooms yet.
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