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| Saturday, 10-May-2008 00:00 |
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Coming soon: Desert Vagabond
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| Friday, 2-May-2008 23:00 |
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Drum bashing at Al Futaisi Island
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| Saturday, 26-Apr-2008 00:00 |
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Graha 2.0
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v. Fitri
g. Buji
b. Mel
d. Black
*The song 'Aku Rindu' (Song: Buji/Black, Lyrics: Black) by Graha will be the single for a compilation album released by Universal Music somewhere in May 2008. Main radios will be airing the song very soon. Check it out!
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| Friday, 25-Apr-2008 20:00 |
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Something about Kampung Baru
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| Friday, 11-Apr-2008 00:00 |
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Red Bull Air Race 2008, Abu Dhabi
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| Friday, 4-Apr-2008 00:00 |
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Sheikh Zayed Al Nahyan Grand Mosque
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Sheikh Zayed Al Nahyan Grand Mosque, the third largest mosque in the world is located on the edge of Abu Dhabi main island - between the Mussafah bridge and the Maqta bridge. The mosque, which took 10 years to be completed (landscaping work still in progress) is named after Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan the founder and the first President of the United Arab Emirates, who is also buried here. In order to promote cultural and religious understanding, the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority announced that tours of the mosques will be given to both Muslims and non-Muslims beginning from mid-March 2008.
As I'm approaching my fourth year in Abu Dhabi, there have been various rumors and hearsays surrounding the delays of the construction during my entire hideout in the emirate. I’ve been hearing talks about fengshui (?), limited availabilities of selective color of the Mediterranean marbles in certain time of the year, design constrains and also corruption. I’m not going to touch on that tittle-tattle as I’m not a tabloid writer, but thrilled to share some of the interesting facts of the mosque.
Interesting facts:
- The carpet laid out on the vast expanse is the "World's Largest Carpet" made by Iran's Carpet Company and designed by Iranian artist Ali Khaliqi. This carpet measures 7,119 square meters, and was made by around 1,200 weavers, 20 technicians, and 30 workers. The weight of this carpet is 47 tons - 35 tons of wool, and 12 tons of cotton. There are 2,268,000 knots within the carpet. (Pardon the details, my last trip to Esfahan and the crash course on carpets by En Aman made me appreciates more on the wool-cotton combi & knots). It took two Etihad Airways cargo freighters to fly the carpet all the way from Iran.
- This mosque also holds, the largest chandelier. There are seven imported chandeliers from Germany and are copper and gold-plated. The largest chandelier has a 10 meter diameter and a 15 meter height.
- Both of these records were previously held by the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Oman, please refer to my previous Oman entry for images of the mosque.
- The exquisite white marble used for the dome is from Macedonia, Greece.
- Hill International acted as the Project Manager, Halcrow was the Project Consultant and EPC by a JV between Six Construct and the UAE construction giant, ACC.
The three of us strive to a chilly morning at 4.30am to catch the Fajr jama’ah prayers at the mosque, followed by the photography session. The 22,000sqm mosque with capacity of 40,960 worshippers had a single saf with only 10 worshippers including us during that Friday morning fajr prayers. Who to blame?
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| Friday, 28-Mar-2008 20:00 |
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Al Qasba, Sharjah
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| Sunday, 23-Mar-2008 17:00 |
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F1 Race Day, Sepang
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| Saturday, 22-Mar-2008 15:00 |
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F1 Qualifying, Sepang
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| Tuesday, 18-Mar-2008 22:00 |
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AUH Fashion Week
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Abu Dhabi Fashion Week
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My first ever fashion show photoshoot. Still lotsa things to learn.
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