Initially announced back in 2007, the Zayed National Museum, the national museum of the UAE is the second in line of the three primary museums located inside the Saadiyat Cultural District.
Construction has already started on the museum that will seek to tell the tale of the late Sheikh Zayed. Sheikh Zayed is considered to be the founding father of the UAE.
The museum will also seek to highlight the rich heritage and history of the region and its connections with other cultures across the globe. Construction on the building is under way. The architects behind the museum are a renowned, Pulitzer prize-winning UK based team Foster Partners.
A recent video released by the Department of Culture and Tourism (DCT) in Abu Dhabi has highlighted massive progress in terms of construction and design of the museum.
The building of the museum has a distinctive structure, comprising of five towers, made of steel, soaring high into the sky. The tallest of these towers even reach the height of 123 metres.
Construction on the building started a few months ago on the 44,000-square-metre site, situated side-by-side to the famous Louvre in Abu Dhabi.
The building is specifically designed to be energy efficient. Each of the five towers utilizes natural ventilation and lighting for this purpose.
When the museum is completed, a beautiful garden will surround it entirely. The installations and landscaping of the garden will narrate important moments in Sheikh Zayed’s life, emphasizing on how he transformed the UAE entirely.
On the first floor of the museum, there will be four separate galleries, that will seek to take people on a journey through the history of UAE and how it came into being in its modern form.
This historical journey will commence thousands of years ago and will seek to draw a connection to the UAE as we know it today.
The bottom part of the five towers will give a distinctive view of the Saadiyat cultural district, set to soon become one of the largest cultural hubs in the world.
Meanwhile, the garden that is surrounding the museum will also connect it to the other parts of the island, and to the sea.
Although even the officials aren’t entirely sure about which collections the museum will host, it is possible that the museum will be home to the oldest pearl existing in the world. This pearl was found on the island of Marawah sometime last year.
Another valuable collection piece the museum is likely to have on display is a beautiful necklace that was given to an Egyptian singer by the name of Umm-e-Kulsum, when she was on a tour of Abu Dhabi, back in 1971.
According to the Department of Culture and Tourism (DCT) of Abu Dhabi, “The Zayed National Museum permanent galleries will display the best of national collections alongside loans from leading world museums.”.
The museum will also act as a centre of heritage-based and archeological research. There will be particular emphasis placed on public education, with a curriculum being designed in line with the UAE’s current school curriculum.
