Why India’s Makrana Marble Was Chosen for Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi
A tribute to vision, faith, and craftsmanship — the story of Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is as awe-inspiring as its gleaming white domes. A mosque where prayer, art, and history meet, carrying the legacy of a leader who dreamt it into existence
When people stand in front of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque for the first time, they often fall silent. There’s a kind of quiet that has nothing to do with sound — it’s the quiet of awe. The story of this mosque begins long before its walls were built, with a man and his vision. Sheikh Zayed, the founder and first ruler of the UAE, was the one who imagined this magnificent structure. He came up with the idea in the late 1980s, determined to create a space where faith, beauty, and unity would come together.
The actual construction began in 1996. It would take 11 years to bring this vision to life, with the mosque opening in 2007. But those years were not without their pauses. In 2004, three years before the mosque opened its doors, Sheikh Zayed passed away. His wish had always been to be buried beside the mosque, with his grave open to the public, so that anyone who wished to offer prayers and blessings could do so at any time. And so, construction was briefly halted to build his tomb, an eternal part of this sacred space.
When the mosque finally opened, it did so on a deeply symbolic day — the Feast of Sacrifice. It wasn’t just a ceremony. It was a gathering of faith. A moment when people came together to pray, celebrate, and carry forward the legacy of the man whose dream had become stone and light.
The Grandeur
Not every mosque can host feast prayers. But grand mosques are built for such moments — for gathering, for community. One way to tell a grand mosque apart from a regular mosque is its courtyard. This vast open area is where worshippers gather during special occasions.
The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque stretches across half a million square meters and can accommodate up to 55,000 worshippers at once. Just the courtyard itself holds 31,000 worshippers and covers 17,400 square meters. The marble beneath the feet of worshippers is not ordinary.
It’s Makrana marble from India, carefully chosen for its ability to stay cool even under the harsh Sun. It reflects light instead of absorbing it, allowing thousands to pray barefoot in comfort. This marble is also combined with stone from Italy and China to create the smooth, elegant finish you see.
The small details matter here. The marble slabs are laid with split linings, so if one tile is ever damaged, it can be repaired without disturbing the entire courtyard.
Magnificent Minarets and Domes
Look to the corners and you will find four minarets rising to a height of 106 meters. Their number doesn’t carry symbolic meaning; it is architectural — built to make the call to prayer resonate clearly in every direction, even far beyond the mosque’s walls.
The domes — 96 of them in total, with 82 sharing a common design — are what give the mosque its distinctive silhouette. From the outside, they mirror each other; from the inside, they draw on local architectural inspiration. Verses from the Quran are written in elegant copy calligraphy (An-Nasr), a style chosen because it’s easy to read and deeply rooted in Islamic tradition.
But the domes are not just about beauty. They are practical. They allow air to circulate, keeping the mosque breezy even on warm days. They amplify sound naturally — something that once helped carry the voice of the imam. And they let in natural light, flooding the interiors with a soft glow.
Pillars, Marble and Craftsmanship
The mosque’s structure is supported by 1,096 stone pillars, handcrafted and inlaid with precious stones. The marble, sourced from different parts of the world, creates intricate floral patterns. The space is designed to make worshippers feel as though they are walking through a garden — a living, breathing sanctuary.
The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque isn’t the only mosque carrying Sheikh Zayed’s name. There are others in Fujairah and Al Ain, though this is the largest. While mosques in other countries like Mecca, Madina, Turkey, and Morocco are also grand, this one stands as the largest in the UAE. During Ramadan, the number of worshippers can reach 70,000 to 80,000 — spilling out into the courtyards, gardens, and arcades.
The Call of the Quran
One of the most unique experiences here is the live recitation of the Holy Quran. It plays 24 hours a day, only pausing when one reciter hands it over to another or during preparations for prayer. There are 24 reciters chosen through a careful process led by Islamic scholars, and they rotate every three hours. Their voices weave through the mosque like a gentle river of sound.
As visitors move through the mosque, they pass through foyers from all four directions — North, South, East, and West. These foyers are designed like gardens, with twisting floral vines laid in colored marble sourced from 87 countries. Natural light during the day and chandeliers at night keep the mosque alive with warmth and radiance.
Among the chandeliers, there’s one that often catches attention — 3.5 meters wide, 5.5 meters tall, and weighing 1.4 tons. This is the smallest of seven chandeliers, all crafted in Italy from fine glass. The largest one, inside the main prayer hall, is a masterpiece.
The Heart of Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
The main prayer room is reserved for the most important moments — feast prayers, Friday prayers, and Ramadan. It can accommodate 8,000 male worshippers, with separate prayer rooms for 1,700 women and 1,300 men for daily prayers.
Inside, the scale of the artistry is breathtaking. There’s the largest dome. The largest chandelier. And the largest hand woven Persian carpet. The chandelier, made in Germany, was designed like an upside-down palm tree, its golden trunk and fronds shining in harmony with the green tones of the carpet below. The carpet took two years to complete — eight months of designing, a year of hand-knotting, and four months of stitching. It weighs 35 tons and spans 5,400 square meters. Its stitch lines mark where worshippers stand during prayer, guiding without breaking the beauty of the design.
The Qibla Wall—A Testament of Faith
Facing the worshippers is the Qibla wall, the direction of the Kaaba. Its colors of gold and white were chosen to reflect a Quranic verse promising rivers of milk and honey in heaven. At its center is the niche, the mihrab, where the imam stands to lead prayers.
Around the word “Allah” at the top of the wall are the 99 names and qualities of God — the merciful, the patient, the listener, and more. One flower has been deliberately left empty, a quiet reminder that there are infinite names and qualities of God still unknown to us.
Beneath it stands the al-minbar, or pulpit, where sermons are delivered on Fridays and during feasts. It’s made of walnut wood, inlaid with white gold, mosaic glass, and mother of pearl — craftsmanship that honours both tradition and faith.
A Mosque That Moves With Time
Prayer timings are displayed on the floral clock, designed with six petals to include sunrise — the point on which all other timings shift. These timings change with the movement of the sun and the earth’s rotation, reminding worshippers that faith flows with time, not against it.
The calendar displayed inside carries both the Gregorian and Islamic dates. The Islamic calendar, also called the Hijri or lunar calendar, is shorter by 10 to 11 days. It marks its beginning not by birth or death, but by migration — the Prophet’s journey from Mecca to Medina, a defining moment in Islamic history.
The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is more than a place of worship. It’s a living story — of a leader’s dream, of faith and community, of craftsmanship and beauty. It holds history in its marble, light in its domes, and prayer in its air.
Every courtyard tile, every minaret, every floral vine is part of something larger — a vision of togetherness that began with Sheikh Zayed. And though he rests beside it now, his dream breathes through the thousands of worshippers who walk its courtyard barefoot every day.