MIA Doha
MIA Doha
Wait, I don’t mean that there is a museum devoted to Islamic art and lunch. This is about an outing to two places...
Today Georg, Lil and I went to the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha. What a beautiful building! It is situated right out in the bay of Doha along the Corniche. The picture above is on the inside of the building, looking down on the bubbling water fountain in the main foyer. The outside of the building is, guess what, beige stone - beautiful angular architecture with rounded arches for interesting contrast. It also has a wonderfully cool-looking water feature and fountain.
The entry foyer is this enormous 3-story cavern capped with a skylight dome that looks like what the inside of a virus particle must be.
There were dozens of rooms with interesting artifacts from a few hundred to 1500 years ago - way too many to put into this blog, so I started a photo web page just for this tourist trip. Look here for all the photos->link. Museum of Islamic Art Album
One of the things that I found fascinating about this museum is that, like so many things in Qatar, it is free and encourages attendance by families. At the entryway to each of the rooms in the museum, there are single page, information cards with instructions as to how to view the room’s material and questions to have your children answer as they go through the room with you. These are colorful, beautifully designed, durable items to take with you. They come in English and Arabic versions. I collected some of these to bring back to the USA. I was thinking of how great an idea this was and how expensive it must have been to produce. Unlike museums I have been in literally anywhere else, this museum does not have to make a profit or even break even. It is fully supported by the Qatar government. The chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Qatar Museums Authority is the daughter of Sheikha Mosah, Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani. So support of the museums, in general, comes from the government, overseen by the royal family.
Finally, as is usually the case when Georg, Lil and I set out on an adventure, we ended up at a restaurant. We drove over to the Main Souq to eat at a traditional Arabic restaurant called “Al Tawash”. Lil, as usual had lamb, this time as a stew. Georg, as usual, had fish (I think it was hamour, aka grouper). I chose something different, as usual - a traditional Qatari dish made from squid. The decor was really interesting and the food was good.
The simple outsides belied the gaudy, sparkly interior walkway into the restaurant.
The was traditional seating to the left which was on pillows on low, slightly raised “risers”, or more formal tables with drapery that could be lowered to provide sort of a tent effect.
We chose the tables and then the feast began. We also ordered some appetizers and traditional “coffee service”. The coffee includes wonderful dates and is served with a tradition of the server standing at the table until all have had their fill of coffee, then he leaves. There was also a bowl of rose water to rinse our fingers after eating the dates. Our server took the picture on the left.
Another great experience.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
The Museum of Islamic Art and Lunch