A constellation in the garden

Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan lived just long enough to see the Great Mosque completed. He died shortly after the end of the work and wanted his tomb there. Along with the mosque, it is now a must for visits by heads of state, high dignitaries, the faithful and simple tourists. 

A memorial to Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan opened in 2018: a garden-shrine, at the centre of which is the artwork dedicated to him, The Constellation. Its author is artist Ralph Helmick, who has always sought to explore human perception with his work. It is a triangular structure 30 metres high, which weighs 250 tons. It comprises 1,000 steel cables, where over 1,300 geometric prisms are arranged to represent the sheikh's likeness. At night they light up and seem to render a constellation with his features