The Grand Mosque was a gift to the nation by Sultan Qaboos to celebrate the 30th year of his reign and was inaugurated in 2001. The mosque contains the second largest hand-loomed carpet in the world, measuring 70 meters by 60 meters. It was produced in Iran and took 600 women four years to weave and contains 1,700,000,000 knots and weighs 21 tons. (This is not part of that carpet, but rather a walkway for tourists!)

The sultan and imam come through doors in this mihrab, which faces the Kaaba in Mecca.