How the Gulf is taking ownership of its cultural heritage

When an ancient desert landscape in Sharjah joined Unesco’s World Heritage list in July, it took its place alongside Al Ain and more than a dozen other such heritage sites across the Gulf. The 95,000-hectare Faya Palaeolandscape is a scientific and cultural treasure that includes one of the oldest uninterrupted records of archaic human habitation, dating back more than 210,000 years.

Faya not only connects the UAE to the earliest chapters of human history, its recognition by Unesco underlines how the Gulf – and the wider Middle East – is propelling itself into a position of cultural ownership and leadership that encompasses archaeology, natural history, art and heritage.

A look at the architecture and galleries of Zayed National Museum 01:33

In neighbouring Saudi Arabia, the pointed double-curved arches of Bab Al-Bunt were the first thing that many Muslim pilgrims saw as they approached Jeddah from the Red Sea. Bab Al-Bunt has now found a new lease of life as the Red Sea Museum – one of several ground-breaking cultural institutions to have opened in the Middle East in recent weeks.

From the state-of-the-art Zayed National Museum and Natural History Museum in Abu Dhabi’s Cultural District to the Grand Egyptian Museum that opened near the Giza Pyramids last month, concrete expression is being given to a renaissance regarding the region’s history, culture and society. But more is to come- in Riyadh, a Museum of World Cultures is scheduled to open next year as is the Dadu Childr