The mosque

The westernmost building in Falayah is a mosque, which was used by the Quwasim family and served as the main Friday mosque of that area. It was built on a low mound preserving the remains of an earlier farmstead. Excavations revealed postholes of a barasti building, pits and a tenur built from a storage jar.

The walls of the mosque consist of Wadi stones embedded in mortar. The floors were raised 50cm above ground level probably to prevent the mosque from flooding. The building shows a rectangular ground plan, combining a large courtyard with a small prayer hall. This hall gets light through several low positioned windows and the room is ventilated by small holes in the upper part of the walls. Rectangular niches might have been used as bookshelves and wooden lamp holders were fixed in the walls. An interesting feature is a narrow and arched 'Minbar', caved with two steps into the eastern wall. This type can be found at several other old mosques in Ras al-Khaimah. The original floor was not preserved, but might have been plastered or just a layer of compressed clay.

The mosque could be entered through two entrances to the south and north of the courtyard. The courtyard itself is divided into three parts. The western and the middle part were separated by three square pillars topped by long beams, which covered the western part and provided shade for people praying outside. The floors in the courtyard were made of a thick layer of compressed clay giving a hard and sustainable surface. The eastern part of the courtyard is raised as a platform with a second 'Mihrab'. It may have been used during the evening and morning prayers when temperatures were cooler. The plastered platform had a raised and walled square in the northeastern corner, which was used as a 'Minaret'.