Dubai is gradually reopening its public spaces after they closed to visitors in March amid the coronavirus pandemic.
With that, the emirate's parks are welcoming guests again – and that includes the extra-special Quranic Park in Al Khawaneej, which reopened on Monday, May 18.
The world's first Quran-inspired park first opened in April last year, and closed temporarily to the public in March 2020 because of health and safety concerns surrounding Covid-19.
Now, as we see out the final days of Ramadan and gear up to celebrate Eid Al Fitr, we're able to once again visit the more than 60 hectares of green space dedicated to the teachings of the holy book.
This comes as part of a three-part plan by Dubai Municipality to reopen all of the city's parks by Monday, May 25.
What is the Quranic Park?
The park is divided into small gardens with various themes, including Islamic, desert and Andalusian. The Glass House and Miracle Cave will also be reopening.
The Glass House boasts 29 plants and trees that are mentioned in the Quran and the Sunnah. This includes bananas, olives, tamarind and oud. Plaques for each plant give visitors information on each breed.
The man-made Miracle Cave comes complete with faux stalactites and uses technology to educate people about the seven miracles revealed in the holy text.
In August 2019, Time magazine listed the park as one of the World's Greatest Places.
"The park's aim, per the city's municipal government, is to bridge cultures and promote tolerance by offering visitors exposure to Islam in a family-friendly space," Hillary Leung wrote for Time.
As the park reopens, there are still strict rules in place to ensure visitors adhere to social distancing protocols. For example, groups of people should not exceed more than five, and everyone should wear a face mask covering their nose and mouth.
Navdeep Suri, India's Ambassador to the UAE
There has been a longstanding need from the Indian community to have a religious premises where they can practise their beliefs. Currently there is a very, very small temple in Bur Dubai and the community has outgrown this. So this will be a major temple and open to all denominations and a place should reflect India’s diversity.
It fits so well into the UAE’s own commitment to tolerance and pluralism and coming in the year of tolerance gives it that extra dimension.
What we will see on April 20 is the foundation ceremony and we expect a pretty broad cross section of the Indian community to be present, both from the UAE and abroad. The Hindu group that is building the temple will have their holiest leader attending – and we expect very senior representation from the leadership of the UAE.
When the designs were taken to the leadership, there were two clear options. There was a New Jersey model with a rectangular structure with the temple recessed inside so it was not too visible from the outside and another was the Neasden temple in London with the spires in its classical shape. And they said: look we said we wanted a temple so it should look like a temple. So this should be a classical style temple in all its glory.
It is beautifully located - 30 minutes outside of Abu Dhabi and barely 45 minutes to Dubai so it serves the needs of both communities.
This is going to be the big temple where I expect people to come from across the country at major festivals and occasions.
It is hugely important – it will take a couple of years to complete given the scale. It is going to be remarkable and will contribute something not just to the landscape in terms of visual architecture but also to the ethos. Here will be a real representation of UAE’s pluralism.
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