I inadvertently took this exact same picture after we had toured the mosque and grounds, and it was amazing how the sky had changed. I’ll post some of those pictures later because I think it would be pretty confusing to see a bright blue sky in one picture and a totally cloudy one in the next!

The Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque can accommodate up to 40,000 worshippers, has four minarets, more than 80 domes and 1,000 pillars holding it all up. The interior has elements from Turkey, Morocco and the Taj Mahal exhibited in marble, gold, semi-precious stones, crystals and ceramics. It hosts the world’s largest Persian carpet, which took 2.000 artisans two years to complete and seven gold-plated crystal chandeliers. (Summary from Lonely Planet’s “Oman, UAE & Arabian Peninsula”)

Several posted earlier today: