Interweaving Botanic Splendour, Meditation, & Spiritual Significance

The new Qur’anic Botanic Garden designed by West 8 offers visitors a unique insight and experience in the botanical world of plants that are mentioned in the verses of the Holy Qur’an; their growth, fruits, use and meaning. UNESCO proposed the idea of this project in 2008 and, the proposal was accepted by HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser. Over the centuries, the verses of the Holy Qur’an have inspired numerous Islamic gardens, embodying a physical recall of heaven on earth, and influenced some of the world’s most beautiful examples of landscape architecture. The Qur’anic Botantic Garden project will “help achieve important objectives in the fields of environmental conservation, scientific research, education and recreation,’’ – Unesco.

The exterior landscape around the Qur’anic Botanic Garden is designed as a Date Palm Garden. Featuring 370 Date Palms, the garden clearly distinguishes itself from the landscape of Oxygen Park. On the northern and southwestern corners of the Garden two squares mark the entrance into the Qur’anic Botanic Garden. Here, visitors descend into the garden on two long ramps; arriving in a calm and shaded water patio below. From the water patio the visitors will either enter the reception area or the central Garden of Reflection; a beautiful, large, colonnaded courtyard with a central pond bordered by vegetation. Visitors are then invited to move through a sequence of five gardens;(Bagh). Each of which features a unique design, plant palette, climate and narrative.