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Zayed Mosque Beauty Amazes Expert Guide

“I was so impressed with the structure when I visited it the first time on Friday when I woke up at 4.30am
especially to be able to call my wife in the United States and tell her all about it,” he said.

Prof. Ham is not an ordinary tourist in Abu Dhabi though — he was here as a tour guide specialist, to celebrate the International Guiding Day on Friday.

At the invitation of Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, Prof. Ham, who is also the director of University of Idaho’s Centre for International Training and Outreach, will hold a series of workshops here for tour guides.

He started on Friday with the Shaikh Zayed Mosque, also known as the White Mosque, which is now one of the main tourist attractions of Abu Dhabi. A group of around 50 professional tour guides from the UAE joined him on the tour, which was led by Ahmed Abdulla Al Mehairbi, ADTA’s tour guide for the White Mosque.

During the one and a half hour tour, Al Mehairbi presented all the stunning, unique and beautiful features of the building, and spiced up the statistics with personal stories as well
as explanations about local customs and traditions.

“One of the questions that tourists ask me most is why men wear white and women black. This is because long time ago, when we were poor Bedouin societies, black was the cheapest cloth, but also, black was visible from a long distance. Especially in war time, if an enemy tribe would approach and sea a group of camel riders in black, they knew these are women and children moving away from the fighting zone, so they would leave them in peace,” explained Al Mehairbi.

As the group walked from the colonnades of the main entrance, across the courtyard, down to the ablution room and finally made its way into the main praying hall fit to hold 7,000 people, Al Mehairbi gave away all the secrets of the mosque’s construction and the rules of Islamic prayers.

“You are now sitting on the world’s largest carpet, under the world’s largest chandelier, which weighs 9.5 tonnes, but feel safe, it is hooked by three strong cables,” he pointed out.

The presentation conquered the hearts and minds of the entire group, including Prof. Ham.

“Now, after this second visit of the mosque I have to call my wife again and spend another half an hour on the phone, telling her my feelings and impressions of the mosque,” admitted the professor.

The reason for doing so is that each tour was presented by a different guide, who had a different style and perspective. In this case, like in any other visit of a place of interest, it is not the facts that impressed him.

“Facts don’t matter. They are just a tool serving a different purpose. Remembering is well overrating, forgetting is what we do best.

“So when taking a guided tour, people come to hear a story, to extract from it any moral or conclusion, which are the source for any amount of liking they would have for the visited place,” explained Prof Ham.

The architecture and the interiors of the mosque left a long-lasting impression on his mind.

-silvia@khaleejtimes.com

• UAE