Zayed National Museum opened on Saadiyat Island today – a landmark years in the making and now finally welcoming its first visitors.
President Sheikh Mohamed inaugurated the museum on Tuesday evening during Eid Al Etihad celebrations in front of the institution, alongside the rulers and crown princes of the six other emirates, plus other dignitaries – in a display of unity at an event marking the foundation of a nation.
The museum stands as a monument that pays tribute to the legacy of UAE Founding Father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, encompassing his leadership, vision and enduring humanitarian values, Sheikh Mohamed said at the opening.
He added that the museum connects the UAE’s rich past with its present and future, and serves as a gateway for people to explore and understand the country’s culture, heritage and traditions across generations. Find more here.
The ceremony featured numerous significant moments, including the debut of the UAE National Orchestra.
Sheikha Alia Bint Khalid Al Qassimi, managing director of the UAE National Orchestra, told me after the performance that the debut holds special meaning, as both the performance and the museum pay tribute to the late Sheikh Zayed, “who believed deeply in culture as a bridge between our heritage and the future”. Find more here.
The institution itself traces the region's history over the last 300,000 years. As Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, chairman of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, said: “It's a museum of the history of the United Arab Emirates as a country and as a land.”
When you first walk in – as I said in last week's Arts Edit Live discussion – the foyer is genuinely awe-inspiring. I encourage you to experience it for yourself as soon as you can. For information on ticket prices, timings and more, find our guide here.
Inside, the galleries move from deep time to living memory with unusual clarity, as you'll see here.
To Our Ancestors begins more than 300,000 years ago with early stone tools. The narrative then shifts through coastal settlements and Bronze Age trade. The full-scale Magan boat, suspended in the atrium, sets the scale of the region’s maritime history. Through Our Connections traces how objects, languages and beliefs travelled through the Gulf from the Iron Age to the spread of Islam.
What stands out is how local the material feels. Many of the objects come from UAE archaeological teams, cultural organisations and families who have shared items tied to their own histories. The museum’s garden continues that approach outdoors – built around the ghaf tree and native landscapes that shape the country’s environmental story. Find more here.
Zayed National Museum also opens with a clear commitment to accessibility. Emirati Sign Language tours will be led by hearing-impaired guides. Step-free routes run throughout the building, and sensory-friendly programmes – including tactile tours and quiet mornings – will be held regularly. These are not add-ons, but rather are built into how the museum expects people to use the space. Find more here.
Taken together, this week marks a significant shift. For the first time, the UAE’s deep past, its early connections and the story of its unification sit under one roof – built for students, travelers, residents and researchers alike.
Zayed National Museum now begins the slower work of becoming a part of daily life: a place people return to for context, for memory and for a clearer sense of the country’s long, layered history.
Its opening is the start of that process. I'm honoured to be able to chronicle what will come next.
Rapper Soulja on why Sudan’s rhythms could shape the next global club sound
When he is not touring or in the studio, Soulja can be found involved in what is akin to field research. Presently in Nairobi, the Sudanese rapper – real name Usama Ashraf – spends his evenings in clubs and music lounges in whichever city he is in, gauging what moves the dance floor.
If a particular song or deft mix from an artist or the DJ gets the room going, Soulja takes out his phone, where an app measures the tempo change. The readings are then filed into a growing archive that already includes Cairo and Dubai.
“It is a different way of doing things,” he admits with a chuckle. “But it is fascinating what people are drawn to, and in many ways, it is not what you think. The studio, with all its technology and great audio quality, can at times trick you into believing you have the right sound. But it is only when you are in the clubs that you get the truth immediately in real movement, and you know if a beat really works.”
As for the information gleaned from those nocturnal sojourns, Soulja predicts the Sudanese rhythm zanig could have the same effect as South Africa’s amapiano – a sultry mix of house, electronic beats and gospel keyboard chords – in becoming the next hot sound to be heard in Ibiza.
Find more here.
One of the year's biggest films drew key inspiration from Dubai, says director
Zootropolis 2, known as Zootopia 2 in some countries, is a massive hit at the global box office – tallying a staggering $589 million during its opening weekend.
Perhaps part of its appeal comes from the fact that the filmmakers studied the globe – drawing key inspiration from Dubai.
That early world-building work also involved looking at how the UAE creates controlled environments within a hot climate – something the team used as a reference point while imagining how Zootropolis could plausibly house extreme biomes in one city.
“We looked at Dubai quite a bit for the technology behind how you would manipulate an environment and make something that’s in a hot weather environment be cold,” Bush says. “That was really fun for us.”
For the sequel, locations that had been left on the drawing board for the first film finally found a purpose. The team wanted to test its lead characters in spaces that were never meant for them.
“We knew that we wanted to tell the story that pushed on Nick and Judy,” Bush says. “They’re the heart and soul of our story, and we wanted to continually push them and push them out of their comfort zones.”
That meant placing them in environments built for bodies nothing like their own. “A place like Marsh Market, which is made for semi-aquatic and marine mammals, would be very odd for them to try to visit,” he says. “It made them feel uncomfortable.”
Find more here.
Dates for your diary
- Benson Boone at Etihad Park, Abu Dhabi – December 4
- Post Malone and Elyanna at Etihad Park, Abu Dhabi – December 5
- Metallica at Etihad Park, Abu Dhabi – December 6
Other highlights
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