Dubai Museum

Al Fahidi Fort, which houses the Dubai Museum, was built around 1787, and once guarded the landward approaches to the town. Renovated in 1971 for use as a museum, its colourful life size dioramas vividly depict everyday life in the days before the discovery of oil.

Galleries recreate scenes from the Creek, traditional Arab houses, mosques, the souk, date farms and desert and marine life. One of the more spectacular exhibits portrays pearl diving, including sets of pearl merchants’ weights, scales and sieves. Also on display, are artefacts from several excavations in the emirate, recovered from graves that date back to the third millennium BC.