I just got to visit this Marvel and those images I will cherish for a lifetime.My first visit to a mosque of this size and coincidentally I also found a pic for last week’s “Weekly Photo Challenge:Big”.
Take a look at the largest recognized chandelier in the world that hangs inside the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque located in Oman weighing a phenomenal 8.5 tons.
Although the Chandelier is the largest known the actual most is of modest proportions, for a grand mosque, having the capacity to house 20,000 worshippers who all can enjoy the marvellous splendour of this spectacular chandelier.
The mosque has a very elaborate interior and also contains a library with tens of thousands of books. The chandelier, which hangs a total of 14 metres from the ornate ceiling, is beautifully trimmed with Swarovski crystals and has fine gold plated metalwork. The chandelier is truly of gigantic proportions having a diameter of 8 metres making it the size of a 3 bedroom detached house but twice the height!
The inside of the chandelier has complex electrical circuitry which requires access for maintenance purposes which is made possible by staircases and platforms actually inside the heart of the chandelier. To emphasise the true beauty of this chandelier, for decoration it has 600000 crystal trimmings. For illumination the chandelier has 1122 halogen lamps which are operated through 36 switching circuits. With this number of bulbs then the energy consumption would be massive so dimmable technology has been incorporated for environmental purpose and to provide control over the illumination levels within the mosque.
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