Washington: Deputy Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan has inaugurated a 360-degree Google Street View imagery project for creating a virtual tour of the Shaikh Zayed Grand Mosque.
The new guide steps inside the Shaikh Zayed Grand Mosque and provides close-up views and minute details of the inside and outside, the Gulf News reports.
Shaikh Mansour praised the initiative for enabling internet users to view the structure of the world`s most beautiful mosques, which represents a valuable addition to the Islamic and human cultures. It is part of a Google initiative that aims to capture every famous landmark on earth to be viewed online, the report added.
Shaikh Zayed Grand Mosque has the capacity for 40,000 worshippers with 82 domes, over 1,000 columns, 24 carat gold gilded chandeliers and the world`s largest hand-knotted carpet. The virtual tour of Shaikh Zayed Grand Mosque can be experienced by visiting www.google.ae/streetview.