Looking up

Today I visited the Sultan Qaboos mosque in Muscat, something I have been meaningful to do for some time. It was the Sultan's gift to the people and marked the 30th year of his reign.

It is a place of quite exquisite beauty. The scale is vast - can take 20,000 people in the prayer halls and surrounding spaces and there are things in which used to be the biggest in the world until other gulf states got in on the act. But it never seemed big.

There is glorious symmetry about the spaces and wonderful craftsmanship in all the finishes. As we were told, none of the materials used came from Oman - it was designed as a place where the crafts of the world came together.

One time, on a taxi ride back to the airport, the driver gave me all the facts about the mosque. He told me the carpet in the ladies prayer hall had been made in Scotland. I thought he was looking to secure his tip. Today it was confirmed the carpet was indeed 'Made in Scotland'. Cool.

The chandelier in the main hall was made in Germany. It is now the second biggest chandelier in the world - the biggest is in Qatar now. It weighs 14 tons apparently. And the blip shows what it looks like looking up.

I shall need to go back.