Berlitz Pocket Guide Dubai (Travel Guide eBook)

Berlitz/Berlitz Publishing

• Publisher: Berlitz Travel
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781785731556
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

Berlitz Pocket Guides: iconic style, a bestselling brand, this is the quintessential pocket-sized travel guide to Dubai and now comes with a bi-lingual dictionary -Newly updated edition of Berlitz Dubai now with a nifty new dictionary-Over 45 million copies sold across the series worldwide-High production values - fresh colour-coded design, full-colour throughout, with glossy maps on the inside cover flapsContent overview: - Top Ten Attractions and Perfect Day itinerary suggestions, including Sheikh Zayed Mosque and Downtown Dubai- Insightful overview of landscape, history and culture- Essential practical information on everything from Eating Out to Getting Around

Where To Go

Dubai – pronounced ‘do buy’, not ‘dew buy’ – is an extraordinary and surprising city. The cosmopolitan home to the vast majority of the Emirate’s 3.1 million strong population, its climate and beaches have met the two traditional holiday requirements of sun and sand for decades. Indeed, at one time sun and sand were about all the city could offer, apart from the Arabian souks on Dubai Creek.

But in the last two decades, that has changed dramatically. The government’s drive to uncover, preserve or rebuild heritage sites, which was initiated in the mid-1980s and gathered pace in the ’90s, along with the development of a fascinating skyline with camera-pleasing landmarks such as Emirates Towers and the sail-shaped Burj Al Arab hotel, the development of world-class shopping malls and the promotion of the emirate’s desert interior as a ‘safari’ destination for rough and ready exploration or luxury, reserve-based retreats means there are now so many places of interest that visitors can find themselves with little time for the beach.

Bur Dubai and Deira

Relations between the two Creekside districts of Bur Dubai and Deira have not always been harmonious. During the late 1930s, Deira rebelled against the authority of the Bur Dubai-based Sheikh Saeed, declaring independence. Order was only restored when Saeed’s son, the young Sheikh Rashid, arrived in Deira with his Bedu retainers and shot down the rebel leaders. Those who survived were blinded in one eye as punishment and only allowed to keep their remaining eye on payment of a sizeable sum.

The Burj Khalifa dominates the city

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Within the lifetime of its oldest residents, Dubai has grown from three settlements of palm-frond, mud-brick and coral-stone dwellings based around the mouth of its 15km- (9 mile-) long creek – Shindagha, Bur Dubai and Deira, each little changed from the century before – to a modern metropolis that incorporates the once-distant fishing village of Jumeirah and sprawls as far west as Jebel Ali Port, some 30km (19 miles) along the coast.

In the 1990s, the growth corridor was along Sheikh Zayed Road, southwest of the creek. Today, this eight-lane highway to Abu Dhabi boasts a number of eye-catching skyscrapers, including the world’s tallest building – the Burj Khalifa (www.burjkhalifa.ae) – and, further west, the spectacular massed high-rises of the Dubai Marina development. More recently, Dubai has been extensively expanding into the sea and the desert.

But even as Dubai undergoes dramatic expansion to gear up for the millions more foreign residents, business travellers and tourists it hopes to attract in the years ahead, Dubai Creek remains the established heart and soul of the city. Dubai began on the banks of the Creek, and for visitors there is no better place to begin discovering the city.

Shindagha waterfront, on the western bank of the Creek

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Shindagha

The historic Shindagha peninsula on the western bank of Dubai’s tidal Creek has now been swallowed by Bur Dubai, but was once a distinct settlement, separated by an arm of the Creek, known as Ghubaiba, which flooded at high tide.

A curling promontory at the mouth of the Creek, Shindagha is the most likely site of the original fishing and pearling village, which would have consisted of simple palm-frond dwellings called barasti or arish, and perhaps a few mud-brick houses. The main residential area for Dubai’s Arab population in the 1800s and early 1900s, Shindagha was the traditional seat of the community’s leaders. It was here in 1823 that Mohammed Bin Hazza welcomed the Persia-based British Political Resident in the Gulf, Lieutenant J. McLeod. Through an interpreter, McLeod briefed Hazza on British intentions along the coast, including plans to place a representative agent in the then more established settlement of Sharjah, to the north.

It was here, too, that 800 members of the Al Bu Falasah sub-section of the Bani Yas tribe settled after seceding from Abu Dhabi in 1833. Led by Sheikh Maktoum Bin Buti and Sheikh Obaid Bin Saeed Bin Rashid, the Bani Yas influx transformed the politics of a community that had numbered around 1,200 people before their arrival. Maktoum became its new ruler, establishing the Al Maktoum dynasty that rules Dubai to this day.

Arabian architecture at Sheikh Saeed al Maktoum House

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Heritage museums

The Maktoum family’s former home, built in 1896 for Sheikh Maktoum Bin Hasher Al Maktoum but now named after his successor Sheikh Saeed, who ruled the emirate from 1912 to 1958, was rebuilt in the 1980s and is a museum of early life in Dubai. The imposing Sheikh Saeed al Maktoum House 1 [map] (Sat–Thu 8am–8.30pm, Fri 3–10pm) contains photographs, an exhibition about fishing and pearling, coins, stamps and historic documents. Located on a quiet stretch of the Creekside promenade, a 10-minute walk from the bustle of the Bur Dubai abra (water taxi) station, the two-storey structure, built of coral stone and covered in lime and sand-coloured plaster, is a fine example of late-19th-century Emirati architecture, with Persian influences. Architectural features include arched doorways, sculpted window over­hangs, vaulted high-beamed ceilings and carved trellis screens, but the overriding feature of the house is its four barjeel, or wind-towers, an innovative early form of air conditioning introduced by traders from Iran. The second-floor bedrooms and balconies above the high perimeter walls offered vantage points for Sheikh Saeed, grandfather of the present ruler, and his son Sheikh Rashid, ‘the Father of Dubai’, to watch the sea trade moving in and out of the Creek.

Today the view out to sea, across the busy road that leads to Shindagha Tunnel, is dominated by Port Rashid. Construction on this deep-water harbour began in 1967, instigated by Sheikh Rashid during an era of massive public works funded by the emirate’s new oil revenues and designed to provide it with a diversified modern industrial and commercial base. The 3,300 sq m (35,522 sq ft) Dubai Cruise Terminal at Port Rashid makes the Shindagha peninsula a convenient first stop for cruise-ship passengers.

Port Rashid aside, Shindagha, which consisted of 250 homes at the turn of the 20th century, was neglected in the rush to develop the city in the early years of the oil boom. When Sheikh Saeed died in 1958, the Maktoums moved away. But the regeneration of this stretch of the Creek, which followed the rebuilding of Sheikh Saeed’s house, has seen the reconstruction of a string of other heritage houses. These include the Sheikh Juma al Maktoum House, an attractive traditional building from 1928, which now houses the interesting Traditional Architecture Museum (Sun–Thu 8.30am–8.30pm, Fri 2.30-8.30pm), with informative displays on architecture and building in Dubai and the Emirates, and the nearby Sheikh Obaid Bin Thani House, dating from 1916.

Breeding falcons

The fastest creature on the planet has been trained for hunting purposes for thousands of years, but in the 21st century the ancient skill of falconry is maintained for sport rather than survival. Before weapons, peregrine falcons – which can achieve speeds of 320kph (200mph) in a dive – were used by bedu hunters to catch food. Wild falcons were caught and trained in two or three weeks at the start of the hunting season in October. Favoured prey was the houbara bustard, a desert bird the size of a heron, whose meat could be vital to a family’s survival. At the end of the season, in March, the falcon would be freed.

Today, falcons are no longer captured, but reared from hatchlings. Even so, they require human contact on a daily basis, or else the...