A Palace, a Museum & a Mosque in Abu Dhabi

The morning view out my window.

Qasr Al Watan, or the Presidential Palace

The entrance hall

From the grounds

The Louvre in Abu Dhabi

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

The courtyard

The men's prayer hall.

A familiar face... I wonder how she felt about wearing a headscarf... did she do it out of respect or was she told she was expected to... 

A Mosque, left, a church centre (below the wings) and a synagogue, right.

Capital Gate, the 160 metre, 35 storey skyscraper renowned as the world's furtherest leaning man made tower.

Saturday, February 14th. 

Today was an over the top kind of day. We visited three outlandish, opulent, ostentatious sites and we ran into our first large congregation of tourists. First up was a drive along the Corniche, which looked really nice with beaches, a bicycle path along the water and some green space. Our first stop was at the Qasr Al Watan, or the Presidential Palace of Abu Dhabi. It is beautiful and glitzy for sure but for what purpose? No one lives here, it is a ‘working’ palace where official business and state visits are held. The enormous main hall is ornate beyond belief. It is all about show and impressions. There were busloads of tourists here, a long queue line with scans and checks to make sure we weren’t bringing in anything untoward.

The second stop was at the Abu Dhabi Louvre, which is in partnership with the Paris Louvre and other French museums. Again there were hundreds of tourists and we were scanned and checked and our water bottles were confiscated. The museum houses a beautiful collection of human art. The welcome brochure states: “We have started a new chapter in the world of museums by displaying artworks from different cultures side-by-side, from prehistoric times to the present day - to allow you to see similarities, points of exchange and differences.” Indeed the displays were well thought out and presented but, unfortunately the crowds and self absorbed people taking selfies or posing for photos in front of art they seem to want to be seen with, is both annoying and obstructive. And frankly I have seen many similar pieces in other museums, including Toronto’s ROM and at historical sites around the world.

Our third stop was at the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. When we parked our bus we had a quick look at the stupendous white structure, which somehow reminded me of an octopus, before we went down to an underground mall with a food court. We had a quick lunch of our choice, I had a Subway chicken wrap, before we gathered together again and took the one kilometre walk on movators, like at an airport, past the shops and finally up a long escalator to the Mosque. We lined up and were scanned and checked again and close inspection was made of our attire. Men are not allowed to wear shorts, or shirts with large logos or pictures on them, and no visible tattoos. Women must be covered from head to foot and wear a headscarf. This Mosque, unlike others, does not provide any appropriate attire if you don’t have the right coverings. A couple of our women had issues, Pam’s ankles were showing above her sandals so she had to put on her socks. Marsha was wearing a blouse that was deemed to be too transparent and showed her arms beneath. The woman inspector asked if anyone had an extra shirt and Dave did. He gave Marsha his buttoned shirt (he still had a t-shirt on which was acceptable). Marsha objected to having to wear it and was going to bail, but I whispered in her ear ‘as a Jewish person you didn’t come all this way just to bail!’ That made her laugh and defused the situation. But at the next scan she had to remove the purse that was over her shoulder and beneath the shirt Dave gave her. So she struggled to get the shirt off and remove the purse, but that knocked her headscarf off. Everyone, especially Marsha was laughing at the ridiculousness of it, when someone in our group said, ‘In order to dress modest you have to strip!’ Which again made us all laugh. Jane too had a blouse on that was too transparent and was about to leave because no one else had a shirt or jacket to give her, but thankfully with a little nudge from our local guide the inspector let her in. Having said all that, the women in the group were upset about hearing that they must cover themselves ‘so men are not distracted’ “as this shifts the focus from their intention (to observe, to learn) to how their body might affect someone else. That feels objectifying, because the narrative centers the male reaction rather than the female agency. In Islamic teaching, modest dress is framed as a spiritual practice for both men and women- men are also instructed to lower their gaze and dress modestly. But, culturally, the enforcement and messaging often fall more visibly and more heavily on women. It’s possible to respect a sacred place and still feel discomfort with the gendered framing of the rule. Those feelings don’t make you culturally insensitive - they reflect your own sense of fairness and dignity.” That whole quote is from ChatGPT.

The Mosque was also unbelievably beautiful and gleaming white. We didn’t have to remove our shoes this time as we were all walking on a raised walkway over the shiny marble floor and the huge carpet of the men’s prayer hall (reputed to be the largest man made carpet in the world). The mosque was inlaid with semi-precious stones: green and red jasper, jade, onyx, sodalite, lapis and different colours of marble and pearl. All of the tourists were guided carefully around the courtyard and through the men’s hall and then back out through the courtyard. It was stunning. Then we had to retrace our route back down to the underground mall and through the one kilometre tunnel to get back to the bus. What an amazingly over the top experience, it truly was beautiful but again what for?

That was the end of our tour day. We boarded the coach and drove for two hours to The Ayla Bawadi Hotel in Al Ain. Ali Ain is an inland oasis city in the Eastern Region of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, UAE, roughly 160 km east of Abu Dhabi City and 130 km south of Dubai, on the border with Oman. We arrived at 7:15, checked in and then went to the nice buffet for dinner. I went up to the roof and enjoyed the heated pool for a half hour before going to the room to sort photos and the daily post. Later I went for a short walk to the adjacent mall and had a wander inside. The first thing I saw was the ugly Tesla truck on display in the foyer. The mall was huge and upscale with many US stores and clothing including Crocs. Then off to bed.