Dubai’s book-shaped library opens

DUBAI: The Mohammed bin Rashid Library that overlooks the Dubai Creek was inaugurated on Monday.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, has inaugurated the bookstand-shaped library that cost Dh1 billion ($272.3 million) to build.

The building looks like an open book. According to the project’s website, the building has been built in shape of a rehl, the traditional wooden book rest used to hold the Holy Quran. Rehl is an X-shaped, foldable lectern used for placing the holy book as the faithful recite it.

Spread across seven floors, the Mohammed bin Rashid Library has nine specialised libraries with more than a million print and digital books.

It also has more than six million research articles, 73,000 music scores, 75,000 videos, nearly 13,000 articles, and more than 5,000 historical print and digital journals. There are also about 35,000 print and digital newspapers from around the world.

– INDIA TODAY