Dubai is endowed with a range of premier attractions, from high-tech amusement centres and thrilling waterslide parks to traditional cultural icons including mosques, windtowers and souks. Every day spent in Dubai offers a new experience – be sure to sample the city’s many attributes during your stay.

The Dubai Museum, housed at the imposing Al Fahidi Fort, presents a fascinating opportunity to discover Dubai’s impressive history. The original fort was built in the late 18th century, and has served as a palace, prison and military installation. Touring the museum provides an interactive journey through history, featuring life-size dioramas recreating scenes from various key eras. Displays include ancient artefacts, galleries and a spectacular underwater exhibit depicting the history of pearl-diving. Nearby archaeological sites in Al Ghusais, Al Sufooh and Jumeirah, featuring artefacts well over a thousand years old, may be visited with the permission of the museum.

A tour of Dubai’s mosques is a rewarding experience – professional guides offer visitors an informative insight into Dubai’s Islamic culture, as well as the chance to view some of the city’s magnificent mosques up close. The Jumeirah Mosque and the Grand Mosque are two of Dubai’s most stunning architectural landmarks.

If heart-pumping thrills are more your style, Dubai boasts an impressive range of theme parks and amusement centres. The Wild Wadi water park is an enormously popular, state-of-the-art attraction. Featuring 24 rides, Wild Wadi caters for all ages and offers a huge range of waterslides, wave pools and amusements to beat off the desert heat. In a similar vein, Wonderland is an 18-hectare family fun park featuring a tremendous range of water rides and on-land attractions. Magic Planet at the Deira City Centre shopping mall and the Encounter Zone at the new Wafi Shopping Mall promise a variety of high-tech amusements for both children and adults.

Other famous Dubai landmarks include the Dubai Zoo, the World Trade Centre with its panoramic viewing deck, and the spectacular house of Sheikh Saeed. Day or night, there’s always an experience to be gained in the ‘City of Merchants’.

Culture

Arab friendship and hospitality is legendary. The Bedouin custom of offering food and shelter to strangers in the desert is preserved by today’s urban Arabs. From chaotic souks to corporate boardrooms, business starts with a tiny cup of cardamon-flavoured coffee… or two, or three.

This is just a part of the traditional expression of Arabic hospitality in which food, coffee, perfumes and incense are offered in a ritual still practised by local Arabs entertaining guests in Dubai.

The population is deeply committed to the Islamic religion whose teachings include charity, justice, honesty and the importance of the family.

There are over 150 mosques and prayer houses in Dubai. The muezzin’s call to prayer forms a rhythmic pattern to life in the city. Muslims have a duty to pray five times a day, not necessarily in a mosque, but facing towards Mecca and reciting the prescribed prayers. The most important prayer is said in the mosque on the Islamic holy day, Friday.

Arab nationals in Dubai continue to wear their traditional dress. For men it is the white robe or dish dasha, with a white or red checked head cloth or gutra tied in place by a twisted black agal. The woman’s abba, or abbaya, is normally black and covers her from head to foot. Many women also wear a canvas mask called a burqa, which leaves only the eyes uncovered.

Weddings here are very different to western-style ceremonies – one unique part of the ritual is decorating the bride’s hands and feet with henna on the eve of the marriage ceremony.

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