The Grand Mosque

We did get a tour of the Grand Mosque.

This is the one place where all women are required to have their head covered and wear an abaya.
The clothing is actually 3 pieces, the dress is the abaya.  The head covering is the hijab, the face covering is the niqab.  Only the full head, dress and full veil is the Burqa.  I was only required to wear the abaya and a scarf for a hijab.

Out of respect the boys wore pants instead of shorts.

Inside the mosque it was beautiful and we had a great guide who taught us a lot more about Islam than I ever knew.  Including how they wash, and how they pray, and even how they determine when is the right time to pray.  We did get to hear the call to prayer and then watch the actual prayers at mid-day.

This is the inside of their rotunda.

 The huge chandelier -

 Outside the main hall, was an outdoor area as overflow.  The lights were hand blown from Italy, the Marble was imported from another place. Not much was actually from Bahrain.

 This is from the balcony, we could not be on the main floor for prayer time,

 This is the mid-day prayer, only men, and all in a line.  When one line is full, only then do they move to the next line.

 Being the quilter that I am, I kept seeing patterns everywhere.  This is the design on the carpet.

 This was on the wall.

These were on the windows.