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Bait Al Zubair is a museum, located on Al Saidiya Street, Old Muscat, Oman. The museum has an extensive collection of ancient weapons, including khanjar, household equipments, and costumes. Outside the museum is a full-scale Omani village and souk.

Description

Bait Al Zubair is a museum, located on Al Saidiya Street, Old Muscat, Oman. The museum has an extensive collection of ancient weapons, including khanjar, household equipments, and costumes. Outside the museum is a full-scale Omani village and souk.

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Bait Al-Zubair is a private museum located in old Muscat city and contains relics from Oman’s military, social, and cultural past. It opened its doors to the public in 1998 and is founded and funded by the Zubair family. The family’s extensive collection of Omani artefacts such as weapons, khanjars, jewellery, household items and costumes are considered to be the finest privately owned collection that offers an insight into Arab and Omani heritage. The Bait Al Zubair complex is an architectural icon. It consists of 5 buildings (Bait Al Bagh, Bait Al Dalaleel, Bait Al Oud, Bait Al Nahdhah and Gallery Sarah) and a garden, as well as a café and a gift shop. It has four floors of an ever-growing permanent art collection and is considered to be the most extensive art collection by Omani artists. Bait al Dalaleel allows you to see how Omanis lived in rural and urban Oman over 100 years ago. Gallery Sarah is one of Oman’s houses of contemporary art and even allows local Omani artists to sell their artwork abroad. The gallery also doubles-up as a meeting place for artists. From the gift shop, you can choose from a hand-picked selection of handicrafts, books, postcards, jewellery, clothing, and much more. Head to the garden to see the barasti (traditional hut made of palm fronds), frankincense trees, and local herbs. There is also a model of a traditional Omani village which shows the Aflaj irrigation system used in Oman.

SherinSherin
20

Bait Al Zubair is cultural foundation started initially with a private museum that opened its carved wooden doors to the public in 1998. It is funded by its founders, the Zubair family. In 2005 the family established the Bait Al Zubair Foundation as the cultural and social arm of the family-owned business, The Zubair Corporation. The Foundation manages the cultural space and develops projects relating to culture and heritage, the arts, the community, history and publishing. Bait al Zubair displays the family’s collection of Omani artefacts that spans a number of centuries, and is considered to be the finest that is privately owned. Its ethnographic artefacts reflect highly specialised inherited skills that define Oman’s society, both past and present. It is one of the country’s architectural icons and in 1999 was the proud recipient of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos’ Award for Architectural Excellence, the first time it was awarded in Oman. The complex consists of five separate buildings (Bait Al Bagh, Bait Al Dalaleel, Bait Al Oud, Bait Al Nahdhah and Gallery Sarah) as well as a garden with a number of traditional features, café and gift shop.

Sulaiman Al KharusiSulaiman Al Kharusi
30

Bait al Zubair Museum was a twentieth century Omani house, owned by a long standing government minister that was then converted to a museum to showcase Omani culture - clothes, weapons, architecture, trade and music and the differences between the regions that make up the country. Again, the 45 minutes we had here weren't enough but we did get an overview of the country and its people and left with a greater understanding than we had before we went inside. We didn't have time to see the gardens, the separate recreation of an Omani house, the map rooms or the stamps and coins room, basically in 45 minutes we just saw the ground floor so allow maybe 2 hours.

Marcus HurleyMarcus Hurley
30

Located next to the National Museum of Oman, this museum showcases the private collection of Muscat's Al Zubair family. The collection consists of specially selected, inherited or donated pieces spanning a number of centuries and regions that reflect Oman’s rich cultural heritage and unique identity. The artifacts include traditional Omani weaponry, jewelery, costumes, household utensils, furniture, coins, stamps and musical instruments. The colorful oryx in the garden surrounding the museum building are interesting. It was so hot and sunny 46 deg day when visited but it well worth it.

Adam GAdam G
40

Very impressive for a private museum and totally in tune with Oman's humble, simple way of life. Personally I'm not really an art lover so I always skipped this and only visited it towards the end but I did enjoy all the collections on display especially the photography exhibition of Syria. In some areas pictures are not allowed but there's plenty of other stuff in there that doesn't mind a camera click at all. Unlike many museums and govt buildings in Muscat that close around 2pm, this being a private remains open till 6pm which is a very good thing because that means its never crowded.

RayRay
80

Fantastic display of the heritage of the Sultanate. Old utensils, riffles, the things used by men and women are arranged in a neat manner. The display in a massive area gives a glance of the culture and usage of the things. The private musuem maintained in a well manner and have all the facilities of a cafeteria, restrooms and open space with seating arrangements. The experience in the museum was amazing. A holiday spent usefully in the museum. The wide range of painting collection stealed the show.

Malarvizhi AravindanMalarvizhi Aravindan
00
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Overview

4.4(1K reviews)

Phone

+968 22 084700

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Website

baitalzubair.com

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Deep Dive

A deep dive into Bait Al Zubair Museum