In pictures: Progress of the Louvre Abu Dhabi on Saadiyat Island

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  The site, several metres below sea-level, is protected by a temporary dam that will eventually be removed to allow the Arabian Gulf to wash against the museum’s exterior.

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  The space frame alone has more than 11,000 beams. To complete the roof, many more thousands of aluminium strips will be laid across the top and underside of the frame to create a criss-cross pattern that will fall on visitors in what the architect has called a “rain of light”.

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  The outer walls of most of the galleries are now almost complete, and while a forest of temporary towers that support the dome until it is weight bearing partly obscure the museum’s interior, the effect, once limited to architects’ drawings, is becoming visible.

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  An 87-metre crawler crane, specially assembled for the task, lifted the first section of the dome into place.

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  Since the start of the year, another 15 pieces have been installed and connected, out of the 85 needed to complete what is technically known as a space frame.

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  Much of the work left in completing the Louvre Abu Dhabi will be in the coming 16 months or so is on the interior.

The National’s Silvia Razgova captured images of the Louvre Abu Dhabi on Saadiyat Island showing the current progress for the massive project. Completion of the museum is scheduled for 2015. All photos by Silvia Razgova / The National.