A walk back in time: Inside Louvre Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi - Khaleej Times takes a preview tour of the galleries before the museum opens to public on November 11.

Louvre Abu Dhabi is not just a museum. It is an artwork in itself, and the cultural world had waited with bated breath for the moment when the masterpiece would be unveiled to the world.

The 10-year long anticipation came to an end on Tuesday when the museum took journalists from around the world on an exclusive preview tour inside the Louvre, the Arab world's first universal museum. The museum will be official inaugurated on November 8 and the public opening is scheduled for 11.

For a first-time visitor, the jaw-dropping moment is definitely the spectacular architecture of the museum itself. The grandeur, the awe-inspiring magnificence, the sheer size and scale of the 'rain of light' dome will have you gasping for breath.

I stayed rooted on my feet for a few minutes, as I stepped in along with a media battalion ahead of its official inauguration on November 8.

Walking through the galleries, displayed in 12 different chapters, is indeed a cultural as well as philosophical journey that reveals the interconnectivity of human civilizations.

The gallery space is designed to take visitors on a journey back in time, forming an inter-connected chain linking pre-historic times to the modern era.

Proceeding from one gallery to another, the visitor is made to feel as if he is engaging with civilizations. An engagement moderated by the 600-plus priceless artefacts that include a 800-400BC bronze structure of Egyptian Goddess Isis, a14th century Virgin and Child statue, a white marble head of Buddha dating back to 534-550CE from China's Eastern Wei Dynasty, a 11-12th century bronze statue of Lion de Mari-Cha from Andalusia, an oil on panel creation of Madonna and Child by Giovani Bellini, La Belle Ferronniere (woman portrait by Leonardo da Vinci and a self-portrait by Vincent Van Gogh dating back to 1887, to mention just a few.