Grand Mosque Dubai

The Grand Mosque is the most beautiful mosque in Dubai so it is not surprising that tourists will always go home with a photograph of this mosque. The Grand Mosque can be found in the Bur Dubai part of the city, along the Al Mussalla Road, close to the Ruler’s Court.

Actually, the Grand Mosque that stands in this area today is a reconstruction of the original one built in 1900 AD, which was a Quranic school (kuttab) where Muslim children learned to recite the Holy Koran from memory. This mosque was demolished in 1960 to make way for the construction of another mosque.

The renovation or restoration to the original 1900 Grand Mosque started only during the late 1990s. The Grand Mosque is decorated by traditional Persian or Arabic architectural features such as handcrafted stained glass, several domes, wooden window shutters, sky blue mosaic pieces and sand-colored walls, which blend perfectly with the old charm of Bur Dubai. The many domes of the Grand Mosque lend to its distinguished look. It has nine large domes and 45 small ones.

Aside from being the grandest of the mosques in Dubai with its multiple domes, the Grand Mosque is one of the biggest mosques in the whole of the United Arab Emirates.
The Grand Mosque also boasts of having the tallest minaret in all the mosques in Dubai, standing at 231 feet or 70 meters high. A minaret is a tower with a balcony from where a crier known as a muezzin chants to call Muslims to prayer.

Throughout the transformation of the Grand Mosque, it continued to be an important place of Islam religion and of the culture of the people of Dubai. Today, the Grand Mosque has become even more an integral part of the life of Muslims in Dubai with its increase in capacity, allowing 1,200 Muslim worshippers to gather in it.

Non-Muslims are not allowed to enter the Grand Mosque, as all other mosques in the emirate except for the Jumeirah Mosque and only if the visitor is a part of an organized tour. Non-Muslims can only enjoy admiring the Grand Mosque from outside and take pictures of it and its gorgeous domes and minaret.