The first stop of the day was the Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque.\u00a0 It’s the fourth largest mosque in the world, behind Mecca, Medina, and Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca.<\/p>\n
The Grand Mosque can accommodate 40,000 people for prayer services.\u00a0 It was built from 199-2006… but Sheik Zayed passed away in 2004 thus never got to see it completed.\u00a0 He is buried on site though.<\/p>\n The construction cost was one billion US dollars.\u00a0 Nothing but the most expensive materials and fixtures were used.\u00a0 Marble from Italy; twenty-four carot gold imlays, the costliest and therefore finest crystal chandeliers.\u00a0 Spared no expense.<\/p>\n And yet having spared no expense, the water fountains were a major disappointment.\u00a0 I know culturally room temperature water is the preferred service so I guess I can’t take assign a cold level score to it.\u00a0 But given that I felt like the water fountain has to have accounted for at least a part of a billion dollar construction — well, I would’ve expected something more.\u00a0 I’m giving it a 3 and I think that’s generous…<\/p>\n As is the custom, women had to be covered so some of the tourists had to don black dresses and scarves.\u00a0 The men couldn’t be in shorts and were issued white taubs to wear.\u00a0 I was in jeans and a shirt so was fine.\u00a0 And I know I have to be respectful of other cultures and beliefs but I did have to bite my tongue by the separate but equal entries split along gender lines.\u00a0 The same thing happened at the buffet dinner last night — one line for men, one line for women.\u00a0 Here it made slightly more sense as gender appropriate security could deal with people who set off the metal detectors… but just as last night, the separate lines converged before too long and it just seemed silly if I’m being generous to my beliefs or wrong if I’m being truthful with my opinions.<\/p>\n As for the building itself, it\u2019s an impressive thing to be sure and I have no doubt when packed to the sides with 40,000 Muslims practicing their faith it would make even more an impression.\u00a0 As it was currently operating in its tourism capacity it felt a bit stagey but that didn\u2019t deter from me and countless other tourists snapping away on our digital cameras.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a series of shots, including the proper mosque etiquette signage.\u00a0 I want to be clear here \u2013 I find most graphic info signs to be hilarious mainly because I like to imagine the drafts involved to get approval for whatever design that is now currently on display.\u00a0 Some of the art design is just inscrutable and some of the art design is so spot on that you wish whoever was designing that panel was in charge of a lot more.\u00a0 In any case, here\u2019s a bunch of respectful shots, as we were told orally and in signage to be respectful.\u00a0 I never have a problem with that in any revered place but I do find that I sometimes am so consumed with NOT making a face or doing something with my hands that I come across even more comical as I fumble with trying NOT to be disrespectful.<\/p>\n From the mosque, we headed on a quick driving tour of Abu Dhabi.\u00a0 A driveby shooting\u2026 that\u2019s wrong\u2026 a driveby stop to shoot some quick pics of the Emirate\u2019s Palace afforded the bonus photo opportunity to snap a shot of the Fast and Furious 7 setpiece locale, the Etiad Tower.\u00a0 So here\u2019s a few shots from there.<\/p>\n Just a quick side note on stats for the Emirate\u2019s Palace, something to give perspective to the wealth we were looking at.<\/p>\n A 30-minute tourist trap stop at the Heritage Museum, a sorta lip service cultural center to Abu Dhabi in the pre-oil expansion of the 1960s, did provide one of my favorite photos of a photo.\u00a0 This framed picture of what the city looked like in 1960 makes for a great comparison to the panoramic I shot on the beach just at the edge of the Heritage Museum.<\/p>\n From here, we stopped at a wholesale fruits and vegs marketplace warehouse.\u00a0 The date is life in the desert.\u00a0 The one thing that seems to grow in the desert is the palm and the fruit of the palm is the date.\u00a0 So if you\u2019re starving in the desert, the date is what will save you.\u00a0 In fact, the prophet Mohammed recommends eating dates after breaking the fasts of Ramadan to help regain strength.\u00a0 They\u2019re tasty, filling, and seemingly have a lot of nutrients in the calories.\u00a0 But can anyone hear dates and not think of that traitorous monkey in Raiders of the Lost Ark who gets hoisted by his owner\u2019s petard in trying to poison Indiana Jones?\u00a0 Sallah saves the famed archeologist from eating them and then we get this iconic moment:<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/www.runkevinrun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/IMG_8807.jpg\")
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