The Sheikh Zayed mosque in Abu Dhabi is clearly inspired by the Taj Mahal.
While Shah Jehan commissioned the Taj for his wife, Sheikh Zayed wanted to ensure his mausoleum was in keeping with his self-image. The scale is grand – and this breathless piece describes its opulence: http://www.traveller.com.au/abu-dhabis-match-for-the-taj-mahal-7cnw.
The Abu Dhabi dome is larger, the minarets are twice as high, and the grounds are on a scale only possible in a sparsely populated desert kingdom.
The Macedonian marble of the Abu Dhabi mosque is a flawless, almost synthetic white, and since it has not been aged by the centuries. it sparkles against the clear blue skies of the gulf peninsula. You could take offence with the garish crystal chandeliers in the mosque; what you think of the inlay work is a matter of taste, but to my eye, the vast floral sprays on the floor and one wall are quite exquisite. And I couldn’t help noticing how absolutely clean the water in the reflecting pools is.
This cleanliness is, of course, true of the grounds, the security posts where guards clear you, the parking lots, and the sweeping drive into the mosque complex.
I couldn’t help compare this with my last visit to the Taj, barely 12 months earlier – the parking lot was littered and tacky; the toilets were leaking; the walkway was uneven and dusty; and the queues impossible. We take all of this as standard for our nation, but at the Sheikh Zayed mosque, I couldn’t help wondering why international visitors would want to come to the Taj, once word gets around how stunning the Abu Dhabi mausoleum is.
Turns out, the word is already out there – Last year, Trip Advisor rated it as the world’s 2nd favourite tourist attraction, just behind Angkor Vat, and ahead of the Taj Mahal, at No. 5. The rating was obtained by using traveler reviews over a 12 month period, folding both quality and number of reviews into an algorithm developed for the purpose.
We can’t solve for the Taj, or any of our other heritage buildings alone. The shambolic state of our infrastructure, the shabby attitude and poor training of our security guards, the , er, cleanliness of toilets, the indifference to litter – these have all come to define our national character; increasingly, these, rather than the built heritage, will determine tourist traffic, which continues to lose out to other nations.
Mohit Satyanand