Kuwait’s Hottest New Attraction: The Amricani Cultural Centre – MUST SEE!

I was invited yesterday for a bloggers’ night at the new Amricani Cultural Centre on Gulf Road. The center was hosting an exhibition called “Treasury of the world” which displays some breath taking jeweled art pieces from the Mughal Empire, the richest empire of its time.

The building of the Amricani Cultural Center is what used to be The American Mission Hospital (Amricani) in the past.

The lobby features a complete wall of old pictures from Kuwait. You would also see a display of antique books which I will talk about later BECAUSE I’M TOO EXCITED TO SHOW YOU THE MOGHAL EXHIBITION FIRST! 😛

We were then directed inside to meet Haya, our tour guide who did a great job by the way. You wouldn’t enjoy such an exhibition unless you have someone who can tell you the story of  every single piece displayed. And Haya surely knew what she was talking about very well. Thank you for making my experience perfect 🙂

The “Treasury of the world” exhibition is a temporary one. And Kuwait isn’t its first stop. The exhibition has been touring the world since 2001. Those pieces were displayed at some of the world’s biggest museums (Including the Louvre/France!). This is the timeline of the exhibition’s different locations throughout the years..

This is more detailed.. from the exhibition’s brochure..

Now let’s enter the exhibition shall we?

This gold coin you see is made entirely out of gold. You can’t imagine the size of this thing really. See the smaller coin? That one is a little bigger than the palm of my hand. So now imagine the size of the big coin.

Such coins used to be given as precious gifts to the important men of that time.

The second room..

Everything they made had precious stones. Shows how extremely wealthy the Moghal Empire was.

Pictures for the most important emperors of the Moghal Empire. Along with a biography for each emperor..

Emperor Shah Jahan, the one who built the famous Taj Mahal in India..

See this mini-sword and its sheath.. This has nearly 3000 ruby stones..

Beautiful necklaces!..

This is a small Quraan (left)..The Moghal Empire were Muslims..

This is probably the most interesting piece I saw.. The one on the right.. It was used to shoo away flies! Those Moghals surely pampered themselves to the extreme lol. Even their fly shoo-er was encrusted with stones..

The other piece (left) is for the shisha hose, a mabsam مبسم in Arabic..

The fish is the piece that was carried by an important man during war..

A back-scratcher..

Upper-arm band..For the stylish women..

I forgot what this piece is, the red stones are ruby..

Little birds carved out of emerald..

Guess what this is?

It’s a diamond. A huge one I must say.

This was my favorite part of the whole exhibition..As Haya said.. An explosion of precious stones! Serious bling bling!

Here’s what every piece in the picture below was used for..

(Top left): When women braided their hair, they wore these pieces on top of their braids.

(Bottom left): A choker necklace.

(Top right): A piece of jewellery worn on the head.

(Bottom right): A belt,

close-ups below.. The belt..

And the head jewelry..

A sheild.. The same sheild in the first picture of this post. Truly breath taking..

This is a clutch-like thing that Moghal women carried on formal occassions..

Done with the “Treasury of the world” exhibition. There are many things I didn’t show in my photos. You really have to go check them out yourself. The pictures are not doing those beautiful pieces any justice.

Now the antique books..

Another exhibition, “Story of Amricani”, focusing on the American Mission Hospital..

An illuminating map showing how hospitals expanded in Kuwait over the years..

A room showing pictures of the most important figures in the health care sector in Kuwait..

An old letter from one of the hospital’s officials to a provider.. very cute..

See these boxes?

They include art pieces for the upcoming “Japanese Pottery” exhibition.

December 4,  7:00 pm, at the Amricani Cultural Centre.

Many thanks to Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah for inviting us. And for the great people in charge of the exhibition.

The “Treasury of the world” exhibition isn’t open to public yet. They are planning to open in January. But they do offer group tours for now, contact them on 2240 0992 or info@darmuseum.org.kw or over Twitter.

Here’s a map of their location