Before oil was found in 1966 and exported from 1969, Dubai lived on trade and on pearl diving. Crews spent months at sea; divers went down on a single breath with a nose clip of turtle shell. The industry collapsed in the 1930s when Japan perfected cultured pearls, and the town nearly emptied. Everything you see downtown was built after that collapse.
Al Fahidi
Also called Bastakiya, this quarter of coral-and-gypsum houses dates from the late nineteenth century and was settled largely by merchants from Bastak in southern Iran. Its lanes are barely shoulder-width, which is the point — the shade is deliberate.
Above the houses stand barjeel, wind towers open on four sides. They catch any breeze, funnel it down into the rooms and push warm air out — air conditioning with no moving parts and no power, and the reason these houses were liveable in July.
The Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding sits in the same quarter and runs meals and Q&A sessions with Emirati hosts under the motto "Open Doors, Open Minds". Nothing is off-limits: religion, marriage, money, the clothes people wear. It is the single most useful hour a visitor can spend here.
Crossing the creek
Dubai Creek is a natural saltwater inlet, and the whole city grew along it. Crossing it by abra — a wooden boat with a diesel engine and no seats worth the name — costs a single dirham, making it one of the cheapest boat rides on earth. They leave when full, which takes about a minute.
The souks
- Gold Souk in Deira — more than 300 shops with an estimated ten tonnes of gold on display at any time. Prices are set by weight against the daily rate; the workmanship is negotiable, so haggle over that.
- Spice Souk — saffron, dried lemons, frankincense and cardamom in open sacks. Frankincense from Oman is the thing to bring home.
- Perfume Souk — oud and attar blended to order.
- Al Seef — a creekside district built in 2017 in deliberate old style, half heritage pastiche and half genuinely pleasant place to walk at dusk.
Also worth an hour
- Al Shindagha — the restored house of Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum, built in 1896, now a museum of the city's history and the pearl trade.
- Coffee Museum and Coin Museum — small, free or nearly so, and both in Al Fahidi.
Practical notes
- Take the metro to Al Fahidi or Al Ras; parking here is genuinely difficult.
- Go in the early morning — the souks open around ten, and by noon the lanes are hot and full.
- Haggling is expected in the souks and nowhere else. Start at roughly half and settle around two-thirds.
- Dress modestly in this part of town: covered shoulders and knees.