United Arab Emirates Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi’s most iconic landmark is the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, which features eighty-two white domes. Built between 1996 and 2007, it was designed to be an architectural wonder that incorporated both modern and classic Islamic artistic styles. Greek and Italian white marble covers the exterior, while Islamic calligraphy decorates the inside.

Take a tripod and some ND-filters so the moving people won't appear on the image. I also recommend to get there in the early afternoon so you can enjoy this place during sunshine, sunset and night and offers a lot of great photography scenes.

The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is one of Abu Dhabi’s top tourist attractions. As with other mosques in the Middle East, it was built to be a monument of great stature. This tastefully designed mosque wears many special hats and holds many records, such as the largest mosque in the United Arab Emirates (and one of the largest in the world), the ability to hold 40,000 people, the world’s largest chandelier, the world’s largest single piece of carpet and much more. Tours are 60 minutes long and run several times a day except Friday. A tour is essential to your visit to the mosque. How else will you learn about the world’s largest chandelier (in a mosque) and the world’s largest hand-knotted carpet? The architecture, décor, and building materials of the mosque were chosen very deliberately. Your tour guide will be able to tell you all about it.

Since April 2024 there has been an audio tour available so you can explore at your own pace. Highly recommended.

You can get a 2h bus drive from Dubai. When staying in Abu Dhabi: plenty of parking space when it's not praying time.