Qaṣr Al-Waṭan () is the

presidential palace A presidential palace is the official residence of the president in some countries. Some presidential palaces were once the official residences to monarchs in former monarchies that were preserved during those states' transition into republics. ...

of the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

, located in

Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The city is the seat of the Abu Dhabi Central Capital District, the capital city of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and the UAE's List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, second-most popu ...

. The palace stands as a symbol of governance, functioning as a venue for political meetings, both diplomatic state receptions and

Council of Ministers Council of Ministers is a traditional name given to the supreme Executive (government), executive organ in some governments. It is usually equivalent to the term Cabinet (government), cabinet. The term Council of State is a similar name that also m ...

meetings, as well as a destination for visitors and tourists. It is not a residential space.

History

Construction of the palace was completed in 2017. Prior to 2019, the palace was used to serve for official purposes only until it was opened to the public as a tourism site by

President of the United Arab Emirates The president of the United Arab Emirates (), or the Raʾīs (), is the head of state of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The president and vice presidents are ''de jure'' elected every five years by the Federal Supreme Council, and the prim ...

Sheikh Sheikh ( , , , , ''shuyūkh'' ) is an honorific title in the Arabic language, literally meaning "elder (administrative title), elder". It commonly designates a tribal chief or a Muslim ulama, scholar. Though this title generally refers to me ...

Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (; 7 September 1948 – 13 May 2022) was the second president of the United Arab Emirates and the ruler of Abu Dhabi, serving from November 2004 until his death in May 2022. Khalifa was the eldes ...

in 2019. Prior to its opening, the palace was used only for official purposes, mainly hosting foreign leaders of states, and for meetings of the country's supreme council and federal cabinet. Even after being opened to the public, the palace continues to be used for these purposes. The palace was opened to the public on 11 March 2019, in a ceremony hosted by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed and

Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (; born 15 July 1949) is an Emirati politician and royal who is the current ruler of Dubai, and serves as the Vice President of the United Arab Emirates, vice president and Prime Minister of the United Arab ...

( Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and

Ruler A ruler, sometimes called a rule, scale, line gauge, or metre/meter stick, is an instrument used to make length measurements, whereby a length is read from a series of markings called "rules" along an edge of the device. Usually, the instr ...

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

). In August, the palace was named by the travel and tourism website of ''Hotel and Rest'' among the top 20 landmarks of art and culture in the World. In 2020, the Qasr Al Watan Presidential Palace was nominated for the World Travel Awards as the main cultural tourist attraction in the Middle East.

Interior and exterior

With a

façade A façade or facade (; ) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loanword from the French language, French (), which means "frontage" or "face". In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important asp ...

made of white

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

and

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

, the mainly white palace is intricately designed and ornately decorated. It includes a dome with a diameter of , a chandelier with 350,000 pieces of crystal, and a number of compartments. The dome is located on top of the central chamber known as "The Great Hall", which is surrounded by two wings to the east and west.

Eastern wing

The eastern wing has the "House of Knowledge", where a number of artefacts and other objects of importance are stored. Stored objects include gifts presented by visiting officials from other countries, and 2

religious text Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They often feature a compilation or discussion of beliefs, ritual practices, moral commandments and ...

s in the "House of Knowledge": the

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

(including a replica of the

Birmingham manuscript The Birmingham Quran manuscript comprises two Verso and recto, leaves of parchment from an early Quranic manuscript or mushaf, muṣḥaf. In 2015, the manuscript, which is held by the University of Birmingham in England, was Radiocarbon dati ...

) and the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

(including the

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of B ...

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

). There is also a library with more than 50,000 books which document the cultural, social and political history of the country.

Western wing

The western wing has halls which are used for official purposes. Here, there is a room known as the "Spirit of Collaboration", where meetings of the UAE Cabinet and Federal Supreme Council would be hosted, besides summits of international bodies like the

Organisation of the Islamic Conference The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC; ; ), formerly the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, is an intergovernmental organisation founded in 1969. It consists of 57 member states, 48 of which are Muslim-majority. The Pew Forum on ...

Arab League The Arab League (, ' ), officially the League of Arab States (, '), is a regional organization in the Arab world. The Arab League was formed in Cairo on 22 March 1945, initially with seven members: Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt, Kingdom of Iraq, ...

and

Gulf Cooperation Council The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (), also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC; ), is a Regional integration, regional, intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental, political, and economic union comprising Ba ...

. Elsewhere, banquets for official events, besides diplomatic gifts from other countries, are kept.

References

External links

Inside the Abu Dhabi Presidential Palace
(

Gulf News ''Gulf News'' is a daily English language newspaper published from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. First launched in 1978, it is distributed throughout the UAE and also in other Persian Gulf countries. Its online edition was launched in 1996. Thro ...

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