Population & Culture Dubai / Emirates

Population & Culture

A trip to Dubai transports you on a journey through time.
Archaeological discoveries suggest that, as long as four thousand years ago, small fishing communities lived along the coast of the Arabian Gulf on the site of modern Dubai. It is also believed that the natural sheltered harbour afforded by the Dubai Creek was a busy port of call on the ancient trade route between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley.
In recent years, archaeologists have unearthed hundreds of artifacts, including pottery, weapons and coinage, that point to ivilized settlements dating back to the third millennium B.C.

These historic finds have been carefully preserved and are now permanently housed in the Archaeological Section of Dubai Museum. Modern Dubai, however, traces its origins to the 1830s. At that time, the small fishing village on the Shindagha peninsula at the mouth of the Creek was settled by a branch of the Bani Yas tribe, originally from the Liwa oasis to the south, led by the Maktoum family who still rule the emirate today.

By the late 1870s, Dubai was often referred to as the principal port on the Gulf coast and, by the turn of the century, was reputed to have had the largest souks in Arabia. Pearling, which was the mainstay of the city's prosperity for many years, succumbed to the development of the cultured pearl in the 1940s.