The world\u2019s oldest natural pearl and an 1,100-year-old Qur\u2019an will be among the star exhibits at Zayed National Museum. The mega museum, on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi and designed by the British firm Foster + Partners, will open in December 2025, it was announced today.<\/p>\n
The museum centres on the story of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (1918-2004), the venerated first president of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), born as a country in 1971. Its galleries \u201cfocus on his life and achievements but also reflect more broadly the historical trajectory of the country from the earliest times through to the more recent past\u201d, says the museum\u2019s director, Peter Magee. It \u201cis rooted in the values of the UAE\u2019s founding father\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of his values which we explore in the gallery is religious tolerance. We make the point that when the first evidence for an early Christian Church dating to the seventh century was found on one of the islands off the coast of Abu Dhabi in 1959, [he] was extremely encouraging of that work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Design inspired by falcon\u2019s feathers<\/p>\n
Abu Dhabi aims to attract 39 million tourists annually by 2030; Zayed National Museum is one of several prestigious venues on Saadiyat Island competing for visitors. Magee says it is the \u201crecipient of generous state funding\u201d but is expected to generate revenue.<\/p>\n
The building itself is a draw, rivalling the nearby Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. Topped by five soaring glass structures, the design is inspired by the wing feathers of a falcon. The towers heat up and act as thermal chimneys, drawing cooling currents up through the museum. Its Al Masar garden will focus on the \u201chuman ecology of the UAE\u201d, Magee says.<\/p>\n
The 8,000-year-old Abu Dhabi Pearl, discovered on Marawah Island, will be on display in the To Our Ancestors gallery, which \u201cexamines evidence of human activity in this part of the world dating back 300,000 years and early trade with other societies in the Arabian Gulf region\u201d, a museum text says.<\/p>\n
The Blue Qur\u2019an, dating from AD800-900, will go on show in a gallery that outlines the impact of new technologies and materials, and the spread of Islam, culminating in the development of the Arabic language. Researchers have found Qur\u2019anic verses concealed beneath an intricate decorative layer of gold leaf on one of its pages.<\/p>\n
Magee stresses the museum\u2019s aim to become a research powerhouse. \u201cWhile research being generated from within the institution is extremely important, the museum has a fundamental role in furthering a research ecosystem within the country,\u201d he says. The Zayed National Museum Research Fund aims to enrich understanding of the UAE\u2019s cultural and historical legacy. In 2024, eight researchers were awarded grants for projects including \u201cputting UAE\u2019s Modern architecture and contemporary landmarks on the map\u201d and a digital preservation initiative focused on petroglyphs in the UAE.<\/p>\n
Collaborations will feed into this research. The British Museum helped with the development of the museum until 2017, Magee says, contributing \u201csome really interesting ideas and expertise.\u201d It is among a number of international institutions lending objects to Zayed National Museum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The world\u2019s oldest natural pearl and an 1,100-year-old Qur\u2019an will be among the star exhibits at Zayed National…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[6361,228,226,227,229,88,6049,6359,6360,6362],"class_list":{"0":"post-5945","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-abu-dhabi","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-arts-and-design","11":"tag-artsanddesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-museums","15":"tag-museums-heritage","16":"tag-openings","17":"tag-zayed-national-museum"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}