Louvre Abu Dhabi

The Louvre Abu Dhabi is the crown jewel of Saadiyat's Cultural District — a building so extraordinary that the architecture competes with the art inside it. Jean Nouvel's floating dome, composed of 7,850 unique aluminium and stainless steel stars, creates the "Rain of Light" effect: a shifting lattice of dappled sunlight that transforms the galleries below into something between a souk and a cathedral.

Unlike the Paris original, the Louvre Abu Dhabi tells the story of all humanity rather than French civilisation. Walking through its twelve permanent galleries feels like watching a conversation between cultures across millennia — a 10th-century Quran displayed alongside a Gothic Bible and a Torah, illustrating how different civilisations were grappling with the same questions at the same moment in history.

The must-see works include the enigmatic Bactrian Princess (2000 BCE), Leonardo da Vinci's Saint John the Baptist on loan from Paris, and Ai Weiwei's spectacular Fountain of Light — a towering chandelier that the artist conceived as a meditation on the Tower of Babel.

The outdoor promenade and waterfront are as much a part of the experience as the galleries. Electric catamarans can be rented from the kayaking launch point, and the golden-hour light on the white stone of the museum's exterior is — as the guides will tell you — unmissable.