Abu Dhabi has capped off a landmark year of cultural announcements by opening two major new museums on Saadiyat Island: the Zayed National Museum (ZNM) and the Natural History Museum. These significant additions follow earlier news that Frieze Abu Dhabi will launch next year, also on Saadiyat Island, and will coincide with the first auctions in the emirate by Sotheby's, in which Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund ADQ now holds a minority stake.

The 56,000-square-meter Zayed National Museum opened on December 2, marking the UAE's 54th National Day. The museum tells the comprehensive story of the United Arab Emirates, spanning from ancient civilizations on the Arabian Peninsula to the more recent history of the country's founding. "The importance of knowing your culture, knowing your history, and [the idea] that culture in itself is the true building block of any forward-thinking society is very much vested in the DNA of every single museum we have here in Abu Dhabi," said Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, chairman of Abu Dhabi's Department of Culture and Tourism, during a roundtable discussion at the ZNM. "This national museum takes you on a voyage that goes back 300,000 years, from the earliest human interaction with the land all the way to who we are in our present and where we're going to go in our future."

The ZNM was one of the original five institutions proposed for the Saadiyat Cultural District in 2007. Three of the five have now opened or are preparing to open: the ZNM, the Louvre Abu Dhabi, and the upcoming Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. A maritime museum designed by Tadao Ando was also initially planned, along with a performing arts complex by the late British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, but both were quietly put on indefinite hold around 2016 and 2017 when construction on all museums except the Louvre Abu Dhabi stalled. Some of the maritime museum's planned content has been absorbed into the two recently opened museums.

The museum's development faced several challenges over the years. In 2009, the ZNM signed a ten-year contract with the British Museum for consultation, capacity-building, and loan-sharing, but this partnership ended prematurely in 2017, reportedly due to construction delays. Today, the ZNM has no major international partners, though it signed a loan-sharing agreement with the British Museum earlier this year, along with other lenders worldwide. Construction picked up again around 2019, buoyed partly by the success of the Louvre Abu Dhabi, meaning much of the museum was built during the COVID-19 pandemic, adding logistical hurdles to the architecturally ambitious project.

The museum's striking design features five huge sculptural grilles on the exterior, meant to resemble falcon wings, with the interior organized like a series of pods. Each of the four upper galleries floats within the building's curving cylinders, anchored to walls at strategic points. This innovative design allows natural light to flow from skylights around the pods while enabling an advanced cooling system. The signature curved grilles function as solar chimneys, pulling hot air up from inside the museum while underground pipes from the garden draw cooler air in.

Inside the museum's atrium, visitors encounter a massive 18-meter-long reconstruction of a black-sailed trading ship from the Bronze Age Magan civilization, which would have traveled westward to Mesopotamia and eastward to the Indus Valley. This centerpiece was painstakingly crafted based on information from a cuneiform tablet, also displayed in the ZNM. Like many of the 1,500 archaeological objects on show, the tablet came from dig sites around the UAE, some led by the museum's director, Peter Magee, an archaeologist who has worked in the emirate for decades. Other objects are on loan, while photographs and video documentation demonstrate how many ancient traditions remain culturally alive today.

The museum honors Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who was born in 1918 in Al Ain, the original capital of Abu Dhabi, and died in 2004. The Nahyans, now the ruling family of the UAE, were already rulers of Abu Dhabi, having united surrounding tribes in the 1800s in what became known as the Bani Yas federation. After becoming leader in 1966, Sheikh Zayed successfully negotiated British withdrawal from the Arabian Peninsula in 1971—ending their protectorate over what was then called the Trucial States—and united seven existing emirates together. Popularly called "the father of the UAE," Sheikh Zayed remains a towering figure across all emirates, perhaps uniquely uniting them still.

One of the ZNM's challenges as the country's first major national museum has been balancing the commemoration of Sheikh Zayed and the Nahyans as national rulers while incorporating the ongoing histories of the loose confederation. The UAE's seven emirates maintain distinct identities: Abu Dhabi, as the capital and wealthiest emirate, holds most political and economic power, while other emirates preserve their own histories, including the Qawasim ruling family of Sharjah and Ras al-Khaimah, and the Al Maktoum ruling family of Dubai, who were also part of the Bani Yas federation.

The Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi, also operated by the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi, focuses on sea, land, and animal life found both internationally and on the Arabian Peninsula. Designed by Dutch firm Mecanoo with plants trailing down its blocky exterior, the 35,000-square-meter museum's foyer contains enormous skeletons of newly discovered dinosaur species. The museum takes visitors on a journey through time, from meteorites and ancient skeletons to the present day, with a significant highlight being "Lucy," on loan from Ethiopian cultural authorities. Lucy, one of the oldest skeletons ever discovered, was found in 1974 in Ethiopia, and her Amharic name translates as "you are marvelous." The museum's presentation shows both the real skeleton and a reconstruction of the short figure walking.

"Our museums are living assets, and that's what's critical about them," Al Mubarak emphasized. "They are not just really beautiful mausoleums that store archaeology and art. They are places that tell stories of history, whether it's the history of art or the history of cultures and heritages." He noted that "the museography and the curatorial intent inside the Natural History Museum is quite different than anything else. It was important for us that we capture the awe and the curiosity and the imagination of our next generation."

The opening of these two museums brings the Saadiyat Cultural District significantly closer to completion. The ZNM is within walking distance of the Louvre Abu Dhabi, teamLab Abu Dhabi (which opened in March), and the newly opened Natural History Museum, creating a concentrated cultural hub that positions Abu Dhabi as a major international destination for arts and culture.