NOV 14, 16 .. ABU DHABI .. SHEIKH ZAYED GRAND MOSQUE ..

Let's begin here with a word.

Sheikh.

I always wanted to pronounce this word sheikh as .. She eeK!

And why not.

Sheikh.  She ikh. She is she. eik is eeK. It is a no-brainer!

But this is not the case.

This word sheikh is pronounced, well at least here in the Arab world, SHAKE.

All you ever wanted to know huh?

Whoa! Wait a minute! Hold the presses Captain. What is this?

SHAIKH ZAYED GRAND MOSQUE.

Ho Hum Captain. As you know, this is 100% normal for this part of the world. Spelling differs all over the place. 

But for this word of all words? SHEIKH and SHAIKH.

Get it Captain? The word SHAIKH pronounces as SHAKE! For by this time clarity has been found. The proper spelling of SHEIKH is probably SHAIKH.

Until I saw this mosque, The Sheikh (SHAIKH) Zayed Grand Mosque, I always thought that the Taj Mahal was it.

Well Mumtaz .. You ARE still IT.

Patti's expression of wonderment says it all about Mumtaz.

I will 'hedge my bet' as follows:

"Mumtaz! My Dear Mumtaz! You have some SHAIKH company over here in the United Arab Emirates."

"You my Dear Mumtaz, without a doubt, are much more photogenic. You are smaller and much more compact and I can capture you in one photo."

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough. Meister Eckhart.

Lord God of Abraham, creator of heaven and earth, THANK YOU for the countless blessings you have showered down upon me! That I am able to see and I am able to visit the places I see and visit and then share my joy with my followers.

Whew! Wow! I do not take this all for granted.

In the below photos, you will see that I was only able to capture bits and pieces of The Sheikh (SHAKE) Zayed Grand Mosque. 

You had better believe, that in visiting the grand mosque, the ladies on our tour donned the proper Islamic attire that was provided for them at no cost by our tour company, Rayna Tours.

I love it. Selfies and smiles and photos galore!

My first view of Sheikh (SHAIKH) Zayed's Grand Mosque.

Now we are going to turn-the-corner. You will now more fully appreciate the size of The Grand Mosque!

The Grand Mosque is simply: Enormous. Gigantic. Stupendous.

I very carefully, to the best of my ability, snapped my photographs without showing you the crowds of visitors. So, since this is a program of honesty, there were indeed a few other visitors here with us.

"A few other visitors Captain?"

Yes! This indeed is my bus. Home Sweet Home Bus. Turn ON Turn UP the air conditioning.

What a DO-NOT-MISS experience seeing Sheikh/Shaikh Zayed's Grand Mosque was. 

Words simply fail me.

/ SIGN ME AS /  .. Wordless Cap

NOV 7, 16 .. SULTAN QABOOS' GRAND MOSQUE, MUSCAT, OMAN

With humble respect to His Majesty Sultan Qaboos, I will refer to Sultan Qaboos' mosque simply as it is known on the streets of Muscat as 'The Grand Mosque'.

Wikipedia has many facts and information about this amazing mosque. 

The Grand Mosque in Muscat, in the Sultanate of Oman, is so large and complex that it is very difficult to show it in one single photo.

So I am going to begin with all of my overall views of The Grand Mosque so you have a good idea of it right here in the beginning of this post.

Mohammad my taxi driver and I were out nice and early in the morning to see The Grand Mosque.

Several views of the lovely flowers you see in front of the mosque looking at them from the side.

The below photos show that The Grand Mosque is set somewhat apart from the general community.

Now we will go all the way around The Grand Mosque and show you the below Minaret from the other side.

Spotless. Immaculate. The above and the below photos were my very first photographs taken at The Grand Mosque.
 
I am at a loss for words to describe the below photos so I will just let you enjoy them. 

 Enormous, absolutely enormous, grounds.

The below photo gives you a perspective of the size of The Grand Mosque. 

We then drove out the below entrance gate and made our way back around to the front of the mosque to photograph the photos I posted at the very beginning of this post.

I snapped the below photos to show just a little bit of the area around the mosque.

The Grand Mosque was NOT on the BIG BUS tour route. To get to it, I hired Mohammad and his taxi to take me to it. 

I am so happy I visited Muscat in the Sultanate of Oman.

Cap