Bahrainis have become used to the impressive edifice that has gone up beside the Grand Mosque in Juffair, and now they can see inside the Shaikh Isa Cultural Centre. His Majesty King Hamad officially opened the institution, designed by Egyptian architect Dr Omar Al-Farouk, in December 2008. One of the biggest cultural centres in the Middle East, it also incorporates a National Library that currently contains some 70,000 volumes, with more books set to arrive. For more background detail, see this article from our January issue.