The Aga Kham Museum

The Aga Khan Museum opened in September of 2014, and both Marcia and I decided we needed to visit this new place.
This is an aerial view of the cultural centre located in Don Mills.

Once again the Toronto Library gave us passes (MAP) to the Museum.
The building itself was designed by Fumihiko Maki, while the surrounding garden was designed by Vladimir Djurovic.

"The architect (F. Maki) used light as his inspiration by ensuring that light was ever-present in the building".
                    Quote is from the Aga Khan web site.

The landscape designer, on the other hand, based the garden on a traditional Persian and Mughal (a four part garden).
Beyond the edges of the formal garden is a park area with Silver Birch, Magnolia and Aspens, to name a few.
A lot of the shrubs and plants are favourites of our local birds and will attract butterflies, as well as honey bees.

 
 This will give you an idea of the Museum and the reflecting pond.

Inside, we were greeted by a chatty Muslim woman, who gave us some idea of the current exhibits that we could see.

This is a picture I took of a huge Persian rug in one of the exhibit rooms.

Here we have a beggar's bowl (Kashkul).
It is a beautifully engraved ceremonial object with dragon heads at each end.
It was used by wandering mystics, who had renounced all of their worldly possessions and subsisted only on alms.

I tried to get a picture of these two ceramic birds, but it did not turn out.
So I nabbed it from cyberspace.

All in all we were suitably impressed with not only the artifacts and the building, but also the surrounding landscape. We both agreed that we should visit again, since they do change the exhibits, much like other museums.

They also do tours (for a price), Check the web site for any more info.