United Arab Emirates (UAE)
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Qasr Al Hosn: Through a tourist’s perspective
Abu Dhabi takes its high rises quite seriously. I am waiting for my guide Georgette who has gone to arrange my tickets and secure my entry to Qasr Al Hosn — the oldest stone building in the city of Abu Dhabi. I stand on one of the broad pavements adjacent to this national monument. A huddle of skyscrapers surrounds me. I crane my neck up trying to count the number of floors, a seemingly impossible task. An unfamiliar booming noise sends me limping a few feet away for cover. My ears ring and in a few seconds I conjure up horrible thoughts of never seeing my loved ones again. A…
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Wahat Al Karama: The Oasis of Dignity in Abu Dhabi
In a shallow patch of water, barely ankle-deep, an inverted reflection of the pristine white Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque wavers under the late afternoon Sun. Georgette, my guide, informs me that the artificial freshwater pool is drained and refilled every day at 5 PM except during this time of the year—Ramadan. I am at Wahat Al Karama, which means ‘Oasis of Dignity’, a monument dedicated to United Arab Emirates’s heroes who lost their lives on duty— the country’s first war memorial. The site is across the street from the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, deliberately constructed close to the mosque so that the departed souls of young men and women to…
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Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Facts and Trivia: Inside the house of God in Arabia
I am still in the haze of my thoughts, trying to contain my amazement at being in a futuristic city on the fringes of a desert, when the car window reveals the pristine white minarets and domes of Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque crowned with crescent moons. Located at the entrance point of the Abu Dhabi Island, the mosque is visible from all three bridges that connect the island city with the mainland. Hope these Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque facts would help you to understand the place better. There are over 2000 mosques in Abu Dhabi but this is the only one that allows entry to non-Muslims. Soon after the driver…
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Abu Dhabi city: A short introduction
Swanky skyscrapers blur past me. I have not been able to take my eyes off them since arriving in the city of Abu Dhabi. Be it the highrises, the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque or the Emirates Palace, the modern desert city’s architectural marvels just keep on getting better. Date palm trees, growing from the aesthetically pleasing dividers at recurring intervals, shade the broad roads—who would guess that a few decades back most of the locals were sand dwellers. The city of Abu Dhabi, the capital of United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a young island city by the Persian Gulf connected with the mainland by three bridges. The Emirate of Abu…
