March 29, 2024

Must-see museums of Qatar blend artistic, architectural beauty

Spectacular architectural designs deliver Qatar with charming glory and magnificence. One particular will surely be mesmerized by how new inventive and architectural themes have been integrated with the outdated kinds so correctly in the buildings of the nation. Amid these structures, the museums of the country stand out with their attractive appearances.

The imposing Museum of Islamic Artwork (MIA) in the cash Doha, which is thought of among the the finest in the earth, features a special perspective to passersby with its extraordinary exterior partitions, inviting individuals to take a look at its intimate and rich ambiance.


Funda Karayel poses inside the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar. (Photo by Funda Karayel)
Funda Karayel poses inside of the Museum of Islamic Artwork, Doha, Qatar. (Photograph by Funda Karayel)

As I enter the museum, I burst with feelings, and a fascination of hope and admiration collided in me though witnessing the earthly manifestation of the Islamic art legacy. The museum’s assortment, showcasing paintings, sculptures, tapestries, calligraphy, metalwork, ceramics, jewelry, woodwork, textiles and scientific instruments from throughout the Islamic entire world, is remarkable. The five flooring of the museum house a assortment of Islamic art relationship from the seventh to the 19th century. Each and every exhibit is specifically curated to assist guests attain insight into the Islamic culture.

Influenced by mosque

The MIA, which has come to be an legendary element of the Doha landscape, stands alone at the end of the reclaimed land of Corniche. Developed by famed Chinese American, Pritzker Prize-successful architect Ieoh Ming Pei, known for producing the glass-and-steel pyramid for the Louvre in Paris, the museum was heavily motivated by historical Islamic architecture, particularly the Ibn Tulun Mosque in Cairo.


Funda Karayel poses in front of the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar. (Photo by Funda Karayel)
Funda Karayel poses in front of the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar. (Picture by Funda Karayel)

Persuaded to arrive out of retirement for the challenge, Pei did not like any of the web pages offered to him to establish the museum. Last but not least, he chose to construct his marvel on a standalone island on the Corniche. The MIA blends the traditional and a lot more modern day Islamic architecture things. Like the exterior, the inside also delivers a glance at Islamic artwork with quite a few geometric styles. These designs produce a experience as if they interminably repeat, which refers to the infinite Allah.

Sculpture in park

The MIA also delivers a attractive, adjacent park, which is the excellent place for site visitors to consider a stroll and take part in pursuits or just gaze at the Doha skyline from the ideal vantage level in the town. This is one particular of the ideal inexperienced fields in Doha and provides its visitors with a massive sculpture, as nicely. “7” by American artist Richard Serra is an practically 80-foot (24-meter) artwork and includes seven metal plates.

The tallest artwork ever established by Serra is also the tallest community artwork installation in Qatar. According to the formal web page of the museum, the artwork “celebrates the spiritual and scientific significance of the amount 7 in Islamic society.” Serra mirrored on his sculpture: “I’ve been building towers for 30 a long time, and I have manufactured numerous towers. But I’ve under no circumstances produced a tower like this one.”

There are numerous explanations why the variety seven is conceived as a miracle in Islam. For case in point, among all the quantities, the variety seven is the to start with number said in the Quran. The quantity 7 is the most repeated amount immediately after the amount a single in Quran, as nicely. The number of heavens is seven even though the variety of the doors of hell is seven in accordance to Quran. Apart from, Muslims walk counter-clockwise 7 instances around the Kaaba to conduct the hajj, or Islamic pilgrimage. Motivated by a minaret in Afghanistan, Serra’s work also immortalizes the importance of the selection seven in MIA Park.

Desert rose

One more legendary masterpiece in Doha is the Nationwide Museum of Qatar (NMoQ), which reveals the loaded heritage and tradition of the nation. The museum, which was established to offer a vivid and immersive place dedicated to Qatar’s earlier, present and long term, is built by architect Jean Nouvel. The stunningly attractive making was created to evoke the form of the desert rose, which can be identified in Qatar. So what waits for the guests inside this masterful mega-museum?

Visitors to the Nationwide Museum of Qatar essentially enjoy the outcomes of meticulous behind-the-scenes initiatives by neighborhood and intercontinental experts to conserve and restore essential objects and artifacts that embody Qatar’s one of a kind heritage. NMoQ’s assortment characteristics an remarkable array of archaeological and heritage objects, manuscripts, files, images, jewelry and costumes that illustrate Qatar’s earlier, present and long term. Contextualized within just the museum’s immersive galleries, the objects aid tell the nation’s sweeping tale in three distinct chapters – Beginnings, Lifetime in Qatar and Building the Nation.


DOHA, QATAR - 25 June, 2019: Interior of the National Museum of Qatar, with exhibition pieces on display.
DOHA, QATAR – 25 June, 2019: Inside of the Countrywide Museum of Qatar, with exhibition items on show.

At the time within, guests can working experience several interactive shows that reveal Qatar’s history from prehistoric situations to the modern day day. Quite a few movies are performed during the museum to include point of view to the record of Qatar and its folks. The 560,000-sq.-foot museum retains 11 galleries that narrate the heritage of Qatar. The chronology, which takes nine-tenths of a mile to unfold, highlights the region’s geological development, natural habitats, Bedouin society, and early coastal settlements and their pearl trade. It also wends by means of Qatar’s unification under the Al Thani family members and the 20th-century discoveries of oil and organic gasoline that propelled its modern-day overall economy and one of the optimum per capita incomes in the globe.

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