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Dubai Museum

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Zeta
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Dubai Museum

  • October 23, 2007
  • Rated 5 of 5 by bflydivas from milano, Italy
Did you ever wonder what happened really in the '70s in the oil-exporting countries? They passed from pearl fishing and nomadic life to luxury, obviously. Little's left about these not-so-old times, but it's worth a look.

From journal Dubai Break

Editor Pick

Dubai National Museum and Al Fahidi Fort

  • January 15, 2006
  • Rated 4 of 5 by Ed Hahn from Hong Kong, China
We chose this attraction as one of our top three activities while in the UAE. We visited it on a Saturday afternoon (Dubai’s Monday). It was almost empty of visitors.

We got a little confused figuring out how the place worked. When you enter, you are in the fort area, which you should explore first with its display of weaponry: curved daggers known as hanjars, as well as swords, spears, bows and arrows, pistols, rifles, axes, and shields made of shark skin. Traditional musical instruments are featured as well. In the courtyard you will find a number of boats and traditional living quarters, including a wind tower.

Al Fahidi Fort once guarded the city's landward approaches. Built around 1799, it has served variously as a palace, garrison, and prison. It is thought to be the oldest-surviving building in Dubai. The walls of the fort are built from coral and shell rubble from the sea and are cemented together with lime. An impressive massive iron-studded door guards the entrance. The fort was both the residence of Dubai’s rulers and the seat of government until it was retired as a museum in 1971. It was renovated later in the decade. The current manifestation with its air-conditioned galleries wasn’t finished until 1995.

The entry to the museum proper is in the far left-hand corner as you enter. This is what confused us. You go down a circular ramp to enter the exhibit area. Once you’ve done that, the site is laid out in a very logical and user-friendly manner.

The museum contains a number of dioramas, complete with life-size, if not life-like, figures and sound and lighting effects. These dioramas are meant to depict everyday life in pre-oil days. There are scenes from the Creek, traditional Arab houses, mosques, a traditional Islamic school, the early souk, date gardens, and pearl diving and selling, including sets of pearl merchants’ weights, scales, and sieves, as well as desert and marine life exhibits.

There is also an extensive archaeological section with displays of copper and alabaster pottery, coinage, weapons, skeletons, and other objects found in various digs. Some are as much as 4,000 years old; others date from the Islamic era, from the 7th to the 13th centuries.

I found conflicting information as to when the museum is open. Best I can tell, it opens around 8:30am and closes around 10pm. The hours differ on Friday (the Sabbath) and during Ramadan. If time is a concern, you can phone the museum at 3531862.

We spent over one and a half hours here. You could spend more if you were into archaeology. As I said before, we enjoyed this museum very much.

I forgot my camera, but photo taking is allowed.

From journal Dubious Dubai

Editor Pick

The Dubai Museum

  • December 19, 2005
  • Rated 5 of 5 by Overlander from Muscat, Oman
The Dubai Museum

The Dubai Museum is arguably the best museum of cultural history in the entire Gulf region. Although it lacks the archaeological treasures of the Bahrain Museum in Manama, it more than makes up for that failing with its array of splendidly conceived and executed dioramas depicting the street life of pre-petrodollar Dubai. There is also a superb collection of early rifles, pistols, and daggers (khanjars).

Located along the Creek on the Bur Dubai side, it is housed in the old Al-Fahidi Fort, thought to be the oldest building in the Emirate of Dubai. At one time or another, the structure has been used as a military post, the residence of the local ruler, a jail, an ammunition dump, and now, in its latest reincarnation, as a museum. Utilizing what construction materials were to hand, it was built of chunks of coral and shells, held together by lime. Roughly 40 by 50 meters, it has two stories, with rooms surrounding a central courtyard with wind towers for ventilation on the corners.

Entering through the small door in the gigantic solid teak gate, you see the large courtyard with various old boats, a model barastee (reed) house, a couple of cannons, and an extraordinary wooden water tank. Go through the rooms of the main building first, then go down the stairs beneath the building, where you'll find the dioramas, which are, in many ways, the most impressive part of the whole experience.

From journal Dubai: Hong Kong Wannabe

Editor Pick

Dubai Museum and Souqs

  • October 26, 2004
  • Rated 3 of 5 by HobWahid from Damascus, Syria
Dubai Museum and Souqs

Amidst all the skyscrapers, shopping malls, and Land Rovers, it is sometimes easy to forget that Dubai was once a small fishing village with a very distinct culture different from the rest of the Middle East. However, this doesn’t mean that there is nothing of cultural value left in Dubai, and if you want to find them, they are there, even if they have been shamelessly repackaged for tourists by the Dubai government.

The first stop on your cultural tour of Dubai should be the Dubai Museum. Housed in an old fort, the Dubai Museum certainly doesn’t have the quality of artifacts that the al-Ain Museum does, but they definitely spent enough money turning it into a visual wonderland. Like the rest of Dubai, what the museum lacks in real culture or history it makes up for in showmanship. The museum is basically one set of dioramas after another designed to introduce you to Emirati culture. There is a diorama of an old souq, of a traditional Emirati house, and even one on the connection between Dubai and the sea. Even with all the flashing lights and sounds, the dioramas are valuable as a tool for learning about Emirati culture and the Dubai Museum is worth a visit if not just to spend one day not at the mall. Also, probably the most spectacular part of the museum is the section on the development of modern Dubai, in which you are taken through a pictorial tour of Dubai decade-by-decade, from 1960 onward. The change over the forty years is absolutely stunning.

Another good reason to visit the museum is because it is located right next to the main souq area of Dubai. This area, once a maze of covered bazaars bustling with activity, is nowhere near its former glory today, having lost out to mega-malls, but it is still worth a visit. The souqs have been generously restored today and serve the tourists as much as the locals. If you have been to the souqs in other Middle Eastern cities like Istanbul, Fes, Cairo, or Damascus, you will probably laugh in the face of the Dubai souqs, but they are still a nice place to buy some crafts, especially gold. Also, a walk through the souqs will end up on the banks of Dubai Creek, the most attractive part of Dubai, where you will find many nice restaurants and cafes where you can smoke some shisha on the banks of the creek.

On the edge of the creek, you will also find a couple of boat landings filled with wooden dhows. These water taxis once filled Dubai Creek, but the building of bridges and tunnels has made them more or less useless. They exist today mostly as a novelty, but a quick ride across the creek provides you with the best views in the whole city and is well worth your time.

And that is about where the cultural side of Dubai stops--now go live it up…

From journal Searching for Culture in the UAE

Dubai Museum

  • June 19, 2002
  • Rated 3 of 5 by Zeta from London, United Kingdom
This museum is built under an old fort, the Al Fahidi Fort. Its the best way to learn how the UAE especially Dubai developed over the years, from a desert land into one of the world's most cosmopolitan and vibrant cities in the world. How the people lived many years ago you will also get an insight into the Bedouin lifestyle (an Arabic tribe).

From journal "Go Buy Dubai"

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