In order to offer visitors of Jebel Buhais Geology Park an unforgettable experience, MCW was asked, in cooperation with Hypsos and Rapenburg Plaza, to create all multimedia and an immersive film about a unique piece of earth with great geological value.
In the middle of the desert of the United Arab Emirates you will find a surrealistic structure. Anyone who undertakes the sandy journey from the west coast near Dubai through the Sharjah desert towards the east can at some point see four copper-colored discs looming up between the yellow rock.
The Jebel Buhais Geology Park, designed by Hopkins Architects, looks like an extraterrestrial base amidst a marshy or lunar landscape. But it has nothing to do with other worlds. On the contrary, it is a place where you can look straight into the history of our own planet.
Geologically unique
About 240 million years ago, our planet looked very different than it does now. Instead of different continents, there was one large land mass. Slowly moving tectonic plates, however, shifted apart and formed the Earth as we know it today. When tectonic plates touch, the oceanic plate usually slides under the continental plate. But 93 million years ago, something extraordinary happened in Sharjah. The oceanic plate was forced over the continental shelf. A geological uniqueness, resulting in ancient earth layers rising up and forming mountain ridges. Erosion then caused the earth to open up and provide a unique insight into nearly 100 million years of our earth's history. Welcome to Jebel Buhais.
Immersive film
Despite its location in the desert (or, for that very reason), a visitor centre has now been set up at this special location, where the geological importance of Jebel Buhais is explained in a fascinating way by means of film and interactives. In collaboration with Hypsos (construction) and Rapenburg Plaza (AV technique) MCW made all the multimedia and an all-encompassing immersive film that depicts the entire process from the formation 240 million years ago to the present day. The film is projected on a large semicircular screen and contains a lot of animations, shots we made on location and a spectacular finale, in which the entire film wall opens to offer a view of the geological site itself. All this is accompanied by a specially composed soundtrack that creates the right atmosphere.
Interactives
With the interactives we explain geological principles such as alluvial fans, magma chambers and the dating of earth layers in a way that is understandable to everyone. To be able to do this, we have dived deep into scientific matter ourselves, flanked by scientists from New York and Dubai. Just because of this, Jebel Buhais is, as far as we are concerned, a phenomenal experience.
The same will undoubtedly apply to the tourists, now that a visit to the area has become even more impressive with the arrival of Buhais Geology Park.
