In 1992, Qaboos bin Said al Said, then Sultan of Oman, ordered his country to have a large mosque. A design competition took place in 1993 and after a site was chosen in Bausher, construction began in December 1994. The construction work, which was undertaken by Carillion Alawi LLC, [2] took six years and seven months. The mosque is built from 300,000 tonnes of Indian sandstone. The main musalla or prayer hall is square and measures 74.4 by 74.4 metres (244 by 244 feet) with a central dome rising 50 metres (160 feet) above the ground. The dome and the main minaret (90 metres (300 feet)) and four flanking minarets (45.5 metres (149 feet)) are the main visual features of the mosque. The main musalla can hold more than 6,500 worshipers, while the women's musalla can accommodate 750 worshipers. The paved exterior floor can hold 8,000 worshipers and there is additional space available in the interior courtyard and passageways, making a total capacity of 20,000 worshipers. The mosque is built on a site occupying 416,000 m2 (4,480,000 square feet), [4] and the complex covers an area of ​​40,000 m2 (430,000 square feet). The newly built Grand Mosque was inaugurated by the Sultan of Oman on May 4, 2001 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of his reign.