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I think what I will most remember from the Grand Mosque was that it nailed, what you might call “metaphorical architecture”. Outside and in the main square everything is blinding white, the kind of white that screams to your parasympathetic axons to constrict the pupil to the smallest of pinpoints. Heat slowly surrounds you and while it is stunningly beautiful discomfit starts to creep in. That all changes the moment you take off your shoes and enter the Mosque. Cool tile starts lowering your body temperature from the ground up and mydriasis puts the black back into your eyes. Voices bounce of curved walls and plush carpet and there is a palpable feeling of peace.
So I could not help but congratulate them on a job well done, the world is a blinding, and sometimes uncomfortable place and we all need a place (physical or otherwise) to feel the cool on our feet and stillness in our hearts. — jamesnord
