About Dubai

Dubai today is flashy, fun and slightly surreal. Renowned for its sand, sun and shopping, it was once a tranquil town of coral-and-gypsum courtyard houses built by Persian traders and palm-frond huts housing Bedouin fisherman and pearl divers. Today shiny new skyscrapers reflect the mosques and wind towers of Old Dubai.

The audacity of the city's rulers is breathtaking. Running out of coastline to build hotels? Build vast artificial islands with 120km (74.5mi) of new beachfront. Need better connections with the world? Build up an award-winning international airline in 15 years.

Things to see

Markets:

Ali Bin Abi Talib St

Under wooden arcades and wind-towers, you'll discover scores of shops selling textiles, clothes and mosque alarm clocks, along with a few Arabian 'antique' stores. In the surrounding streets you can buy a sari, have a suit made, bargain for electronics, and pick up some Bollywood tapes.

Sikkat al-Khali St

Deira's celebrated Gold Souq attracts buyers from all over the world. Pass through its wooden lattice archways to discover great dazzling heaps of gold - chains, rings, earrings, bracelets and every other kind of jewellery. Most impressive are the ornate Indian and Arabian designs, intended for a bride's dowry - by the look of them they're too heavy to wear!

Dubai Museum
Al-Fahidi Road
Tel: 04 353 1862 (info)

The Dubai Museum is housed inside the Al-Fahidi Fort, which was built in the late 1790s, and is believed to be the city's oldest building. The museum has collections of everything from Arabian sailing boats to the curved daggers known as khanjars. There are multimedia and interactive displays, and all the exhibits have captions in Arabic and English.

Grand Mosque
Ali bin Abi Talib St

This multidomed mosque boasts the city's tallest minaret. The mosque might appear to be a beautiful example of restoration work, but it was in fact built in the 1990s. As well as being the centre of Dubai's religious and cultural life, the original mosque was also home to the town's kuttab (Quranic school) where children learnt to recite the Quran.

Maintaining the style of the original Grand Mosque, which dated from 1900 and was knocked down to make way for another mosque in 1960, its sand-coloured walls and wooden shutters blend in perfectly with the surrounding old quarter of Bur Dubai.