Overview

Boom Town – Visit Dubai for Jaw Dropping Fun

Dubai is the Cinderella story for cities – the city that changed its fortunes, went from rags to riches, from a small town of fishermen and pearl divers to a dazzling city of hyper real estate and became a city of millionaires born of the construction boom. Dubai is also that magical place frequented by visitors from all over the world for its shopping festivals, glittering souks and specially constructed islands in the sea because it ran out of space for constructing skyscrapers and world class holiday resorts!

Although a relatively new entrant on the global tourism map, Dubai attracts visitors for its sheer jaw dropping modern architecture, its entertainment options and of course for the Dubai Shopping Festival. There are few things in Dubai that don’t make you wonder ‘how is it possible?’ Be it the $800 “Burj Dubai” – the tower slated to be the tallest in the world once it gets completed or the islands invented in the sun-kissed Gulf; Dubai is capable of astonishing you at the turn of every street. And this is what attracts most visitors to this gulf city.

Once a town of Bedouin traders, Dubai is now the city of ‘impossibles’ - There is an impossibly huge Riviera – the its three ‘offshore’ palms laden with numerous hotels and signature villas; plans are afoot for a Giorgio Armani Hotel and a Palazzo Versace; visitors in the next few years would encounter hubris in the form of an underwater hotel, a second ski resort with a revolving mountain and a Chess city with 32 tower blocks of 64 floors, each in the form of a chess piece! Visitors are waiting with bated breath for the Middle East’s answer to Disneyland – the Dubailand- that will be larger than Monaco. There would be few wish lists not aced by Dubai.

This is not a city that does things less than opulent and it is this magnitude that draws visitors to it. Of course, there are the mega scale markets, beautiful beaches, golf, historic sites, nightlife and all that tax-free shopping, too.

A rich legacy

Not much is known about the pre- Islamic history of Dubai but archeological finds reveal that humans have been settled in the area since at least 3000 BC. What makes Dubai’s history interesting is the fact that the very first settlers of the area were in some way associated to the mysterious Bronze Age Magan civilization which was one of the largest traders of Copper and had business ties with Babylonia and Mesopotamia and surrounding civilizations. The Magan traders dealt in copper from Oman and pearl from the rich Dubai Creek and were a rich and influential society. However, the Magan civilization disappeared mysteriously some time around 2000 BC leaving behind a legacy of smaller trading societies that finally culminated into the predecessors of what is known today as Dubai.

The city’s trading instincts were strong and well in place as late even in the 6th century as is evidenced by a recently excavated caravan station at Jumeirah, just south of Dubai. Islam came into the picture when around this same time, the Sassanids, a Persian dynasty who had inhabited the mouth of Dubai Creek since 224, were driven out by the Umayyads. With the rule of the Umayyads, Islam became the prominent religion of the region and a new era began.

The Umayyads were also excellent merchants and made good use of the city’s strategic trading location between the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean by trading pearls with civilizations as far away as China, all the while acting as Islamic evangelists. Trade flourished under the new rulers and the city became a trading power and a rich city. This soon caught the eye of the Portuguese who fought and won control of the city in the late 16th century, pushing the local populations out of the economic equation. The British wrestled with the Portuguese for control and gained control of the region's waterways in 1766. Dubai was caught between local power struggles and Europe's imperial dreams, but somehow turned this bad situation to its advantage, expanding its pearl trade through every channel.

In 1833, the neighboring tribal power, Bani Yas, invaded Dubai and gained control of the Bur Dubai area under the leadership of Maktoum bin Butti, founder of the Al-Maktoum dynasty that still rules the emirate today.

Sheikh Maktoum, a brilliant strategist took advantage of the fact that the region's two economic epicenters - Sharjah and Lingah were loosing their sheen to Dubai and in 1892 signed an exclusive business deal with the British. He also permitted a full tax exemption for foreign traders in 1894 and with these two events made Dubai a very attractive place to do business. Persian merchants were the first movers in this new free economy but the rest of the world wasn’t far behind and the seeds of the success story called Dubai were planted.

The sheikh was instrumental in building the foundations that would one day make Dubai one of the greatest trading powers in the world. His successor, the young Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed al-Maktoum pushed the city’s fortunes higher up by putting in place the re-export business. After Dubai Creek was dredged in 1963, allowing almost any boat safe harbor, gold smuggling became the flavor of the next few decades.

Dubai's lucky streak reached its peak when in 1966, oil was discovered and the economy kicked into overdrive. The British were on their way out and in 1971, Dubai became the seventh emirate of the newly formed UAE. Sheikh Rashid agreed to a formula that gave the emirates of Abu Dhabi and Dubai the most weight in the federation, and made sure that Dubai would continue its fast pace of development and its freedom.

Today Dubai is known as the city where no dream is unachievable; it is the epitome of the free – trade model and attracts thousands of visitors each year to its world-class tennis tournaments, boat and horse races, desert rallies, the Dubai Shopping Festival and Dubai Summer Surprises.

The Dubai Season

Dubai has of late become the raison d’être for the continent hoppers and the city tops just about luxury vacation list. That is why you would find tourists in the city during just about every season but we would recommend saving yourself the ‘hunt for the next air conditioned place’ by visiting the city between November and April when the weather gods are smiling their most benign smiles.

If you can abstain from most worldly pleasures, visit Dubai during Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting that is strictly adhered to throughout the UAE. The upside of getting near to 50% discounts on most hotel deals makes the heat and the abstinence both quite attractive.