Abu Dhabi’s long-awaited Zayed National Museum will open its doors in December.
Located at the Saadiyat Cultural District, the museum will tell the story of the UAE, dating back more than 300,000 years. Named after the country’s Founding Father, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, it will house many rare artifacts, including one of the world’s oldest pearls, discovered in Abu Dhabi, as well as folios from the Blue Quran, and a 60-foot reproduction of an ancient Magan boat, set to be displayed in the museum’s atrium.
Regular visitors to Abu Dhabi will have witnessed the museum’s construction in recent years. The Foster+Partners-designed structure is impossible to miss against the Saadiyat Island skyline, with its five feather-shaped steel structures inspired by the wings of a falcon, the UAE’s national emblem.
“The cultural legacy of the UAE has been nurtured over decades, from the establishment of its earliest cultural institutions to today’s expansive vision for cultural exchange and knowledge,” says Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, chairman of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi.
“As the national museum of the UAE, Zayed National Museum is the legacy of our Founding Father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. It is a tribute to his boundless belief in people, in their ability to learn, to uphold the values of unity, compassion, and national pride. This museum is more than a place of preservation; it is a promise to future generations, a beacon of our identity, and a space where our story is told not just through objects, but also through emotion, memory, and vision. This institution will carry our story forward for generations to come.”
The museum will be a central draw to Saadiyat Island’s emerging cultural district, which is already home to Louvre Abu Dhabi and the recently opened teamLab Phenomena. The long-awaited Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Abu Dhabi and Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi are slated to join the line up by the end of 2026.
A spokesperson for the Saadiyat Cultural District previously told Condé Nast Traveller Middle East that each new institution will offer “a different way of understanding the world and our place in it through a unique shared narrative that illustrates our cross-cultural similarities through time.”
This article was originally published on Condé Nast Traveller Middle East.
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