Oman - Day 4 morning

The Grand Mosque! The Sultan built this huge mosque as a gift to his people. It is open for tourists during weekday (Sat-Wed) mornings between the two morning prayer times. Most Omani might have only gone there for a special holiday like Ramadan.

Cruise ships now come into Muscat and one excursion is the Grand Mosque. Caleb and I had been there before when there were us and maybe a handful of other people. This day is was Wall To Wall people from everywhere-mostly Europe and Far East. There are dress codes, women must have all hair and skin covered except hands, face and feet but the enforcing of it was a joke. Even our group, the scarves kept falling off. We planned a meet up time and divided up. We began in the large ladies hall, then into the main prayer room. I had been there many many times but the hugeness and grandness of it took my breath away. There are lots of stats like its the biggest carpet in the world and the wood is from Malaysia...but I had forgotten most of that. We also visited the washing areas and then Tracy, Caroline and I found some peace and quiet in the outside back niche area where we walked and enjoyed the mosaic art work too.

the ladies of our group
all tourist entered through the garden area
me (with my properly done scarf) and the largest minaret.

From the mosque we stopped at the Safeer Hypermarket which is like a Super Walmart close to our hotel. We stocked up on sodas, fresh fruit-which was lacking in our breakfast at the hotel, and I got a washcloth. The group learned that lack of variety in shopping choices (something Americans complain about in most countries) was not an issue in Oman. Tracy got a ton of dates and several people got ice cream because the temp was over 75!