Monday Geology Picture: An Early Map of Arabia

A Map of Arabia by Abraham Ortelli, circa 1570. Map print hanging in the Dubai Museum, September 2013. — Map of Arabia by Abraham Ortelius, circa 1570. Map print hanging in the Dubai Museum, September 2013.

Back in September 2013 I visited Dubai for one day during a layover when I was flying from Alaska back to South Africa. I was fortunate enough to be able to sleep on the flight from New York to Dubai, so when I arrived in Dubai I took a quick shower at the hotel then headed out to explore for a few hours. I spent some time at the Dubai Museum. The museum is located in a fort that is the oldest building in Dubai and has several interesting exhibits. I’ll blog a little more about my visit to the museum later this week.

For now, I want to share this picture of an interesting map that was displayed in a little nook in one part of the museum. As I was walking through the museum, the map caught my eye, so I took a picture of it. The map is titled “Map of Arabia in 1570 by Abraham Ortelius”. I was intrigued by the map as I thought that 1570 was quite early for such a detailed map to have been produced for the region. When I did some googling after the museum visit, I discovered that the map comes from a book known as the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Theatre of the World), which is considered to be the world’s first modern atlas. This atlas was compiled by Abraham Ortelius, a Flemish cartographer and geographer. I’ll have to do some reading on Ortelius– he sounds like he was a very interesting person. According to Wikipedia, he was apparently one of the first people (the first person?) to propose the theory of continental drift… long before Alfred Wegener!

Monday Geology Picture(s): Gold Vending Machine, Dubai

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — A gold vending machine in Dubai.

This week I’m continuing with sharing some pictures from my January 2012 trip to visit my friend Karima in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. One day we drove over to Dubai for some sightseeing. We drove around, did some shopping, and visited the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building. When we were at the Burj Khalifa, I noticed a strange vending machine: one that sells gold! Specifically, the vending machine sells small souvenir gold bars with a picture of the Burj Khalifa on them. Those are some expensive souvenirs! I’m afraid I couldn’t afford one… although I did try out the golden dessert at the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi.

Monday Geology Picture(s): A Geologist’s Dream Bathroom, Emirates Palace Hotel, Abu Dhabi

This week I’m continuing with sharing some pictures from my January 2012 trip to visit my friend Karima in Abu Dhabi. During our fancy lunch at the Emirates Palace Hotel, we went to the women’s bathroom, which I immediately referred to as “a geologist’s dream bathroom” because of all of the beautiful decorative stones.

Geologists, what types of stones would you put in your dream bathroom?

Monday Geology Picture(s): Golden Dessert at the Emirates Palace Hotel, Abu Dhabi

For this week’s “Monday Geology Picture” post, I’m continuing with sharing some pictures from my trip to the United Arab Emirates in January 2012. I’ve already shared some pictures of kayaking in Abu Dhabi and of the stunning decorative stones of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.

One day while I was in Abu Dhabi, my friend Karima and I went to the impressive and opulent Emirates Palace Hotel. According to Wikipedia, this elaborate hotel cost 3.9 BILLION British Pounds to build, making it the second most expensive hotel ever built. The most expensive hotel ever built is apparently the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. One of the reasons that the Emirates Palace Hotel was so expensive to build is the fact that it is covered in stunning (and likely quite expensive!) decorative building stones. The stonework isn’t as elaborate as the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, but there is certainly much gorgeous stonework at the hotel.

Karima and I didn’t stay at the hotel– we couldn’t afford it, most likely! Rather, we went for a fancy lunch, which was fairly expensive but a fun treat for a girls’ day out. We started with a mixture of savory snacks: Western style tea sandwiches and Middle Eastern style pita bread, hummus, and falafel. Then, we ordered a chocolate treat to share. To our delight and amazement, the chocolate treat was sprinkled with gold leaf.

The gold leaf was very pretty on the dessert. However, if you think about it, eating gold leaf is absurd: it’s very expensive, and it has no taste. Eating gold (at least the purified gold used for food items) won’t hurt you, but it doesn’t have any nutritional value. Nevertheless, considering that we were enjoying lunch at the world’s second most expensive hotel, eating a gold leaf decorated chocolate dessert seemed appropriate. Although the gold leaf didn’t contribute to the flavor, the dessert tasted heavenly; it was one of the best desserts I’ve ever eaten. Kudos to the bakers and chefs.

After lunch, Karima and I walked around the parts of the hotel where visitors are allowed. I’ll share some more pictures from the hotel, including many pictures of some of the beautiful decorative stones, in future blog posts.

GoldenDessert1 — Karima and I, posing with our golden dessert.

Decorative Stones of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi – Part II

After putting up my recent blog post Decorative Stones of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque – Part I, I decided to write to the mosque to inquire about the lithologies and origins of the various decorative stones. I promptly received this reply from Michelle Sabti, the Chief Tour Guide for the mosque:

Greetings to you Evelyn from the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Center!

Thank you for your email, we are glad that your tour and experience with us was such a positive and memorable one!

I can provide you with the list of many of the marbles and semi-precious stones that were used in the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque construction. I trust this assists you.

The different types of major marble supplied on site:

–              SIVEC Supplier FHL Country of Origin Greece/Macedonia

–              LASA Supplier Lasa Quarry Country of Origin Italy

–              MAKARANA Supplier Country of Origin India

–              AQUABIANCA Country of Origin Italy

–              BIANCO P Supplier Carrara Country of Origin Italy

–              MING GREEN Supplier UMGG Country of Origin China

–              EAST WHITE Supplier UMGG Country of Origin China

In the external columns the stones used are:

–              1)     Dark Lapis lazuli

–              2)     Light Lapis lazuli

–              3)     Red Agate

–              4)     Dark Amethyst

–              5)     Light Amethyst

–              6)     Dark Green Adventure

–              7)     Light Green Adventure

–              8)     Moss Agate

–              9)     Pink Adventure

–              10)   Dark Red Adventure

–              11)   Light Red Adventure

–              12)   Abalone Shell

–              13)   White Mother of Pearl

–              14)   Fancy Jasper

–              15)   Sodalite

–              16)   Haqiq Red

–              17)   All Veins in Leaves: White Jambu

–              18)   Mehndi Pfizer

Have a great day!

I am very grateful to Michelle for providing this information about the decorative stones.

I recognize many of the stone types such as:

I’m not sure about the lithology of the “adventure” (or the “white jambu” or “mehndi pfizer”) stones. I presume that these are names for decorative stones provided by a particular supplier– or possibly “adventure” could be referring to adventurine. I think that the “haqiq red” stone may be carnelian. I also noticed some green serpentine rocks around the mosque. Likely the green marble contains plenty of serpentine!

It is important to bear in mind that often decorative building stones are given names that are different from the actual lithologies. For example, a variety of rocks are sold as “granite” without actually being real granite! That’s because everyone wants granite countertops– even when other types of stones are just as good as (and often rarer and more beautiful than!) granite. Thus, some of the decorative stones used in the mosque could possibly have rock names that differ from the true (i.e. scientifically accurate) rock names.

Perhaps next time I visit Abu Dhabi (which I hope to do before too long!) I can inquire further about the decorative stones used in the mosque. I’d certainly love to learn even more about these beautiful building stones!

Mosque4 — Detail of one of the stone flowers.

Again, I highly recommend visiting the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque if you ever find yourself in Abu Dhabi. I was very impressed with my (free!) tour and also impressed with the mosque’s quick reply to my inquiry email about the decorative stones. Above and beyond that, the mosque is the most stunning building that I have ever visited — it is a truly awe-inspiring place.

Decorative Stones of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi – Part I

UPDATE: See Part II for some more information on the decorative stones used in the mosque.

After sharing my mangrove kayaking pictures for this week’s “Monday Geology Picture” post, I thought I would share some more pictures from my January 2012 trip to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The day after kayaking, my friend Karima and I visited the stunningly beautiful and elaborate Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. This impressive mosque was built for an estimated $545 million USD, is the size of 5 football fields, and can accommodate 40,000 worshipers. The mosque was built over many years and opened in 2007. The mosque welcomes tourists as well as Islamic worshipers. For our visit to the mosque, Karima and I donned conservative, respectful clothing (long skirts, long sleeves, and headscarves) and joined a tour group. The mosque is breath-taking– it was hard to believe, sometimes, that it was real. At times, I felt as if we had stepped into a magical world. I greatly enjoyed my visit to the mosque and highly recommend the tour to anyone visiting Abu Dhabi.

During the tour, I spent much of my time admiring the decorative building stones, which come in all colors, shapes, and lithologies and were likely sourced from all over the world. The primary building stone used in the mosque is a stunning white marble. I tried to identify the other decorative stones when I could. How many stones can you identify? Where do you think the stones might be from? Leave a comment below!

Mosque1 — Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque #11.

Mosque2 — Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque #12.

Mosque3 — Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque #14.

Mosque5 — Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque #19. Karima and I inside the mosque. The wall behind us features the 99 names of God in Islam.

Monday Geology Picture(s): Kayaking Amongst the Mangroves in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Over the next few weeks, I thought I would share some pictures from my trip to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates back in January 2012. I spend a few days in Abu Dhabi after attending a geology conference in the Sultanate of Oman. I went to Abu Dhabi to visit Karima, a good friend of mine from college, and her family. I had a wonderful trip. It was great catching up with Karima and her family. They were wonderful hosts, and I saw many wonderful things in Abu Dhabi and also Dubai. I really enjoyed sightseeing with them, and I saw many great rocks– mostly in the form of decorative stones on various fancy buildings.

During my first day in Abu Dhabi, I went kayaking with Karima, her husband, and son. We went kayaking with a group amongst some mangroves. What a great way to see part of the city and start my trip! I highly recommend a kayaking trip if you’re in Abu Dhabi.

Accretionary Wedge #42: Countertop Geology

Ian Saginor of the blog Volcanoclast is hosting this month’s accretionary wedge, and this month’s theme is countertop geology!

Here’s the call for posts:

Have you seen a great countertop out there? Sure, everyone says it’s “granite”, but you know better. Take a picture, post it on your own blog or send it to me and I’ll post it for you. Do you think you know what it is or how it was formed? Feel free to include your own interpretation and I’m sure others will enjoy joining in the discussion. Ron Schott suggested that we expand the entries by including any decorative stone material that has been separated by humans from its source. This includes buildings, statues, etc. There’s a lot of really unusual stuff out there, so make sure to find a good one.

I think this is a great topic for an accretionary wedge! Anyone who has spent any amount of time with me knows that I am constantly looking at stone countertops, floors, walls, statues, and pretty much anything else made out of rock. Actually, I just visited by good friend Karima in Abu Dhabi, and she and her husband laughed at how I inspected the walls of all of the buildings we visited. I couldn’t help myself– there is some spectacular building stone to be found in Abu Dhabi. I was particularly impressed with all of the amazing building stones used in the Sheikh Zayed Mosque and the Emirates Place Hotel. My friend Karima actually joked that when we visited the Emirates Palace hotel and ate our gold-flaked dessert, I kept looking at the floors and walls rather than enjoying the spectacular ocean and city views. However, I’m actually planning to share pictures of those two buildings in other posts. For this accretionary wedge post, I’m actually going to share some pictures of my friend Karima’s front entryway to her house in Abu Dhabi.

Karima and her family live in a lovely two-story house (with a rooftop balcony) in Abu Dhabi. In front of their house, they have lovely slabs of granite decorating their front steps and entryway. They also happen to have a dark-colored xenolith just in front of their front door! The xenolith caught my eye as soon as I arrived at their house, and it actually reminded me very much of the dark-colored xenoliths I often observe in the Cape Granite here in Cape Town.

Here are some pictures of my friend’s front entryway xenolith:

And here’s a picture of a similar looking dark-colored xenolith in the Cape Granite here in South Africa:

: A similar looking dark-colored xenolith in the Cape Granite here in South Africa.

You may recognize the above picture as it was this week’s Monday Geology Picture.

Monday Geology Picture: A Gneiss Staircase in Abu Dhabi

I am currently spending the long weekend in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. I’m visiting some good friends after spending about ten days in Oman to attend the International Conference on the Geology of the Arabian Plate and the Oman Mountains.

Yesterday my friend Karima and I visited the luxurious Emirates Palace Hotel here in Abu Dhabi. We paid far too much money for a deliciously gaudy lunch, which included a chocolate dessert with genuine 24-carat gold flakes on top!

After lunch we wandered around the hotel a little bit, and I spent most of my time admiring the various ornamental stones which were used in the construction of the hotel. For example, the stairs in front of the hotel are made from a combination of gneiss and K-feldspar granite. I thought it was neat to see the gneiss and the K-feldspar granite (a possible protolith rock for the gneiss) in juxtaposition.

Here’s another view of the staircase:

And here’s a picture of our gold-coated dessert. Yes, we ate gold!