As someone who recently spent a year living in Doha, I can attest to the fact that the Middle East is no stranger to lavish displays. You may have read about Qatar’s recent daytime fireworks spectacle, Black Ceremony, by Chinese gunpowder artist Cai Guo-Qiang—his largest daytime explosion ever.In similar fashion (and perhaps in an attempt to one-up its geographical neighbor), the United Arab Emirates recently commemorated the 40th anniversary of its National Day with an extravagant projection mapping display on the iconic Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in the UAE’s capital city, Abu Dhabi. San Francisco-based tech lab and creative agency Obscura Digital was called upon to actualize the production, aided by a lengthy list of collaborators to make this feat possible.We’ve seen more than our share of projection mapping projects over the past year, but what’s unique about this one is its canvas—we haven’t really seen the technique’s effect on Islamic architecture before, which is by nature exceptionally grandiose and intricate.The region’s all-encompassing traditional influence is steeped in the presentation and visual aesthetic—vines crawl up minarets, ribbons of light snake around keyhole doorways, and traditional floral patterns, grids, and religious symbols like the moon wrap the mosque’s walls.As Obscura Digital’s “largest and most complex mapping project to date,” they employed 49 projectors to cover the mosque’s entire 600ft by 351ft surface and used TouchDesigner software for the show’s control, video playback, geometry correction and calibration. Find out more about the project’s development on Create Digital Motion, where one of the developers, Barry Threw, gives a great technical walkthrough.What we like most about this beautiful (and most definitely expensive) display, as well as Black Ceremony, is that both projects were public art displays funded for the enjoyment of the people. Though lasting mere minutes, it almost seems like money well spent—at least when compared to other rash and expensive public projects, like the controversial heaven-scraping Burj Khalifa in Dubai or the proposed air conditioned stadiums for the 2022 Qatar World Cup, which have, mercifully, since been recalled.All opinions aside, we can’t wait to see what kind of spectacular art the Middle East brings us next.