Category: Uncategorized

East of Suez, 2025 – Abu Dhabi, The Louvre

Tuesday, 7th January, 2025

Golly, I have forgotten how quickly the days can pass and before you know it you are two days behind on the blog. Anyway, here we go, Tuesday. I designated this a fast day on my diet, although that is a serious challenge when surrounded by all the goodies at breakfast, but I did pretty well – and needed to after the gorging of Christmas.

We had a slightly slow morning as we only had one target for the day and that was to visit the Louvre, Abu Dhabi style. It is, as you might expect in this part of the world where they effectively have a blank canvas (and cheques), an impressive building and a very fine, eclectic collection. The theme is very worldwide with exhibits from all the major civilisations of the world over the ages skilfully displayed next to each other to enhance both the similarities and differences, but particularly the former. The first gallery (or chapter, as they call it) is, I presume, a homage to the Louvre pyramid in Paris…

Here are a (very) few examples of some of the exhibits…

As ever, I am a bit short on detail, but I think we can safely say, Ancient Egypt..
This one I do know, although I am sure the more discerning of you have already recognised the distinctive features of a Woman dressed in a Woollen Garment from Bactria (where the camels come from, I presume), from 2300 to 1700 BCE.
I think this is actually from Cyprus…
Sorry, not sure, but a lovely looking chap…
I am going with Persian, Medes, Assyrian or somewhere in that area.
This is almost definitely Persian brickwork. Lovely colours.
Roman. Again, lovely colours and unusual shape.
A Roman copy of the Greek original.
And again…
Also a Roman copy of the Greek original – Athene.
Supposedly Cleopatra…
Definitely the Emperor Augustus
Jumping quite a bit, to the 19th Century, a lovely Renoir.

I appreciate that I have skipped several centuries, but photos use up space on my platform, so I have to restrict myself a bit.

As mentioned, the building itself was also magnificent as evidenced by the photos below…

It reminds me a little of the British Museum. I do not know the answer to the question “what happens if it rains?”
Luckily it doesn’t rain much in the UAE.
It is situated on the waterfront in Culture City, where they are building an enormous Guggenheim Museum.
This seemed to be a favourite posing spot for photos, though what attracted me was the light.
Very white and straight contrasting with spectacular grey domed roof.
One last view…

We headed back to our hotel after this as we were both still playing catch-up in the sleep department. We (actually, that should be I) did manage to look a complete idiot come supper time as I had found a restaurant that served salads (still fast day, remember), so, with the aid of Google Maps and the trusty wheelchair, we set off on a short walk up the street, over the crossing and back down the other side, one block in to where the restaurant was supposed to be located. No sign of it, so check Google again, but no sign of it where we were, but it seemed to have now relocated in a matter of minutes back to where we had come from. So we retraced our steps, only to discover the restaurant was not only near the hotel, it was actually IN the hotel!!! Val had a good laugh at my expense, though for someone who got lost on the plane on the way out, I felt that was rich. We did both have a good laugh – and a light supper.

More soon – in particular the Grand Mosque…