About scientific center
TSCK is a cultural achievement and educational facility enriched with knowledge, which portrays fascinating architectural design that reflects Islamic art and culture. The walls contain ceramic depictions of stories that tell of Kuwait’s history. The main building is comprised of 3 main attractions: the Aquarium, Discovery Place and IMAX Theater.
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The Aquarium
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An entertaining journey into the aquarium takes you on a tour of 3
different environments. … All three sections provide specimens of
animal, plant, and marine life of that particular environment. The first
walks you through the desert section which contains animals found in
the desert such as the caracal, snake , and hedgehog. The next
environment is the coastal edge, where you find animals such as
penguins, otters and coastal fish.
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The third is the Marine environment which includes many tanks which
hold reef sharks, rays, and fish in 100,000 liters of water. The main
tank holds 1.5 million liters of water and contains deep sea sharks,
turtles, fish and artificial corals. The divers at TSCK have the task
of feeding the sharks and rays during scheduled live demonstrations.
The fossils located just before the exit of the aquarium and in the
corridors of TSCK are a gift from Sheikh Sabah Al Jaber Al Sabah and
Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah from their private collections.
Other services provided for the visitors are privately guided tours and
the “Dive with the Sharks” program. This program allows visitors above
14 years of age who hold open water scuba diving license to dive side by
side with the sharks in the main tank for 30 minutes.
In order to educate visitors and modernize the aquarium, 42
interactive screen were placed in front of every exhibit. These touch
screens are filled with valuable information related to animals within
the Center. This was done with the aim to educate visitors in an
entertaining manner (Edutaining) using modern technology and using
different formats such as pictures, videos, sounds, and games to appeal
to younger generations.
entry fee for adults 3.500 KD
child under 5 years 2.500 KD
Discovery Place
Learn about science through interactive games and activities. The Discovery Place is filled with educational and entertaining exhibits, related to various forms of Science. A
group of interactive scientific exhibits present the visitors with a
simplified way to learn about energy (such as magnetic, kinetic, and
solar) and the different ways to create it. The traveling exhibits are a
new philosophy has been adopted by The Scientific Center in October of
2009 to renew and develop the exhibits in Discovery Place. That has been done by allocating a space of about 500 meters squared for traveling exhibits, which change every 6 months. This
constantly introduces new and never seen exhibits covering a wide array
of subjects from well renowned scientific centers around the world.
The Scientific Center includes an IMAX Theater with a
giant screen, 15 meters high and 20 meters wide. It is equipped with
the latest media facilities and an 8000 watt sound system. 3D
educational and documentary films in Arabic and English are shown using
the largest film format in the film industry (10 times the usual 35mm
film).
All elements of the 250 seats IMAX Theater come together to immerse
the viewer in an unimaginable experience which makes the viewer feel
like they are involved in the movie. IMAX’s patented and customized
geometry maximizes your field of view. The precise positioning and shape
of the IMAX screen as well as the acoustical treatment of the walls
create an environment that delivers the world’s most immersive movie
experience. To create the illusion of three-dimensional depth, the IMAX
3D uses two camera lenses to represent the left and right eyes. The two
lenses are separated by an interocular distance of 64 mm (2.5 in), the
average distance between a human’s eyes. By recording on two separate
rolls of film for the left and right eyes, and then projecting them
simultaneously, viewers experience seeing a 3D image on a 2D screen.
During projection, the left and right eye images are circularly
polarized in opposite directions to one another as they are projected
onto the IMAX screen. By wearing special eyeglasses with lenses
polarized in their respective directions to match the projection, the
left eye image can be viewed only by the left eye since the polarization
of the left lens will cancel out that of the right eye projection, and
the right eye image can be viewed only by the right eye since the
polarization of the right lens will cancel out that of the left eye
projection.
Dhow Harbour
Housing the only surviving Kuwait sailing ship from
the pre-oil era, boom Fateh-el-Khair, the Dhow Harbor gives the visitor
insight into a vital part of Kuwaiti heritage. Located directly on the
water front, the Harbor includes samples of various smaller dhows and
vessels used during this period. Fateh-El-Khair is a deep sea sailing
ship of the "boom saffar" type. It is 19.8 meters long, 8.1 meters wide
and 4.9 meters high. This ship was designed and built in Kuwait in 1938
by the late shipbuilder Ali Abdul Rassol for the merchant Mohamed
Al-Ghanim and his brother Thunayan Al-Ghanim. The building of the ship
took 18 carpenters who worked 60 days round the clock and cost
approximately 17,000 rupees. She is made of Indian timber and weighs 95
tons when empty and can sail up to 13 knots.
Fateh-El-Khair’s main route was from India to Africa as a cargo
ship and could carry a total of approximately 226 tons. This ship
carried dates from Basra, Iraq and would trade them for tea in India and
wood from Africa. The journey took seven months and went to several
exotic ports. Merchants on this ship traded dates in Mangalore, India
for tiles and in Zanzibar the ship would take on mangrove poles to use
in the building of Arabian houses. She continued this same route until
1952, when the life and economy of Kuwait changed with the discovery of
oil. At this point, work within Kuwait became more appealing to the sea
men. The merchants in Kuwait began selling their boats to Iran.
In 1954 the ship was outfitted with an engine that assisted in
powering the ship. The ship was re-discovered in Dubai by Mr. Yaqoub
Yousef Al Haji. He took a picture of the boat and took it to the
shipbuilder Ali Abdul Rassol in order to identify it. The photo and
summary of Fateh-El-Khair was presented during the KFAS board meeting in
which Sheikh Jaber was present. It was then decided to find the boat
and it was purchased by the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of
Sciences in 1994 and renovated in Doha, Kuwait by Ali Abdul Rassol. The
Fateh-El-Khair is now permanently docked at the Dhow Harbor of the TSCK
as a monument to the maritime history of Kuwait. In the year 2000, two
months before the opening of TSCK, the permanent docking took place. The
event included the famous ship captain and merchant, Captain Essa
Yaqoub Bishara who navigated the ship for 11 years.
There are two smaller boats which are on exhibit in conjunction
with the Fateh-El-Khair. One is a mashuwa, a long boat of the dhow built
in 1995. The other is the kait. This was a type of boat which was used
to transport the captain from one ship to another. Both were also built
by the late Ali Abdul Rassol. The different types of Kuwaiti dhows are
as follows: Al Batteel, Al Sanbook, Jalboot, and Shoo’I were used for
pearl diving, while Teshala was used for shipping stones used for
building.
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