Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi, UAE
The grand mosque was constructed between 1996 and 2007. The project was launched by the late president of the UAE, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who wanted to establish a structure that would unite the cultural diversity of the Islamic world with the historical and modern values of architecture and art.
The impressive and inspiring Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque's architects were British, Italian, and Emirati, with design ideas borrowed from parts of Turkey, Morocco, Pakistan, and Egypt, among other Islamic countries.
The mosque holds a Guinness World Record for the largest hand-woven carpet and boasts one of the largest chandeliers in a mosque. Calligraphy encircles the hollows of its domes, etched with verses from the Quran. It features 82 domes, more than 1,000 columns, and 24 carat-gold gilded chandeliers.