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Oman Museum to Showcase National Treasures

MUSCAT - Six thousand years of Oman’s history will be on display for the benefit of residents and visitors when the country’s biggest museum throws open its doors next year, also marking a new addition to the Gulf state’s expanding list of tourist attractions.

The RO12 million Oman National Museum, which will occupy an area of 13,757 square metres and incorporate state-of-the-art technologies, will be located near the Al Alam Palace, at the foothills of the Al Hajar mountains.
Set to become an imposing landmark in the capital, it will seek to “promote understanding and appreciation of the various manifestations of Oman’s cultural inheritance,” Sayyid Haitham bin Tareq Al Said, Minister of Heritage and Culture, said.
“The project was long overdue and I am happy that it is taking shape now,” he told reporters after signing the construction contract with Carillion Alawi LLC.The museum is designed by the signature architect firm Jasper Jacob Associates in a joint venture with COWI and Partners. The project caps a series of museums planned by the heritage ministry since its inception in 1976.
Sayyid Haitham said the new museum would highlight the sultanate’s civilisational, historical and cultural background by familiarising visitors with its ancient landmarks, unique architecture, manuscripts, distinguished traditional costumes, music and rich culture.This, he added, would be completed by late 2011. The ministry currently oversees a total of seven diverse museums, and “it is the aim that the new project will take the existing museums in the sultanate to a new and unprecedented international level,” the minister said.
Originally the national museum was planned as part of the RO45 million Oman Cultural Complex project in the Airport Heights area, the agreement for which was signed in November last year.“However, more thought was given and we decided that the museum should have its own location, and Muscat would be the best place for it beside the Al Alam Palace,” Sayyid Haitham said.
The museum, which will feature 10 galleries, classrooms and studios for interactive sessions with schoolchildren and a 70-seat indoor café, will focus on subjects such as art and culture, archaeology, architecture, ethnography, costumes, calligraphy, literature and music.
Other facilities will include an 80-seat lecture hall and two seminar rooms that can accommodate 50 and 30 people, respectively.
 
ravindranath@khaleejtimes.com

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