The recent elaboration of Dubai has started from a secluded community located on the Creek’s banks, to a big metropolis continuing from the airpot of Dubai to the Jumeirah area and beyond. An ideal place for both gaiety and work, the city offers large assortment of indoor and outdoor activities, demonstrating its cultural heritage through its museums, as well as lordly demonstrating the shape of buildings to come from the Dubai Marina development to the construction on the two Palm islands, with a third in early stages of development.

Dubai’s fast growing development has garnered many of international media attention, not least because of famous constructions like the iconic Burj Al Arab and many of new and giant projects such as group of artificial islands The World and the tallest building Burj Khalifa tower.

Dubai may be one of the most contemporary and rapidly growing cities in the world, but it is still very much alive with a nice and amazing heritage. With the quick economic growth, few people take the city as ‘cheap and cheerful’, however tourists can still find hotels and activities to suit everyone. You can just as easily walk around the older Deira side of the city and lunch at a creek side cafe, as spend a day drinking Champagne on a luxury yacht.

There are many Dubai 5 star Dubai hotels and Dubai malls dominating the Dubai skyline – and these places are great destinations to escape the heat and enjoy shopping – but the more traditional area of the city is still evident in the Bastakiya area and the roads and streets lining both coasts of the Dubai Creek, which provides a fascinating insight into the city’s origins. Development of Dubai only, actually, began following the discovery of oil in the 1960s. Before this, it was a small town that mainly relied upon trading, Fishing and pearl diving, with the Creek giving the destination’s lifeblood. This history is visible in some of the older constructions around the Bastakiya area in Bur Dubai and the markets in Deira, just across the Creek. These persist a main point of city life, patronized by residents and tourists alike.

The family home of Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum, grandfather of the present ruler, is now an interesting architectural place and houses a museum, as part of the Heritage & Diving Village. Overlooking the Creek, the house dates back to the 1800s and the years before air-conditioning, when wind towers caught and channelled air movements down a chimney system to rooms below.

Disposed in the restored historical district, the Al Fahidi Fort – once a palace, garrison and prison – is now the renowned Dubai Museum, whose interactive exhibits, artefacts and waxwork vignettes show the city’s growth over the past 100 years.

Other historical sites feature on many of the tourists’ tours that operate in the city. They include the Bait Al Wakeel Maritime Museum near the abra (water-taxi) landing on the Creek, formerly Dubai’s first office building. And on the other side of the Creek in Deira, is the Burj Nahar, a popular example of a watchtower, surrounded by picturesque gardens.

The impressive Grand Mosque, behind the museum next to the Ruler’s Court, is a distinctive landmark. Non-Muslims are not allowed to go inside; however its stained glass windows and minaret – the tallest in the city – are visible from the street. To see the inner workings of a mosque, an organised visit of the beautiful Jumeirah Mosque is a must.

Tags: Hotels

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