Welcome to February 28th!! Come join me on a journey to the Dubai Museum.
 |
| This is the Al Fahidi Fort and it is believed to be the oldest building in Dubai that still exists today. The oldest part was built around 1787. |
 |
| The fort was used to guard the landward approaches to the region from other neighboring tribes as well as from attacks of sea pirates. |
 |
| It was fortified by three towers. |
 |
| It served as the residence of the local rulers until 1896. It also went through stints as a prison and a garrison before becoming a museum in 1971 |
 |
| It features galleries that recreate historic Arab houses, mosques, souks, date farms, and desert and marine life. |
 |
| You can view artifacts from several archaeological digs that date back to the third millennium BC. |
 |
| These sites are from ancient settlements at Jumeriah, Hatta, Al Qusais and they show that the area has been settled for at least 4000 years. |
 |
| It also includes an exhibit on pearl diving, complete with sets of merchants weights, scales, and sieves. |
The doors to the museum were fascinating......
 |
| You can also walk around a recreation of what the old city would have been like. |
On our way home from the museum, we ran across some more interesting architecture......
 |
| This building is known as, "The Dubai Frame". It took $43.5 million dollars to build. It is 500 feet tall and 300 feet wide. It has a hollow, gold-plated observation tower and is the world's largest picture frame. |
 |
Apparently it is a museum of sorts. Visitors start at the bottom level which is fitted with AR technology to tell the story of the city's transformation from a fishing village to a thriving metropolis. It has a courtyard and traditional Emirate homes, a traditional souk selling handicrafts, and a construction site charting Dubai's development since the discovery of its oil.
An elevator trip takes visitors up to the SKY deck, which has floor to ceiling views. One side overlooks "new" Dubai to the south while the other offers views of "old" Dubai to the north. The two towers are connected by a 1,076 square foot bridge which has a 270 square foot glass panel in the middle, offering a great 360 degree view. But its most dazzling feature is a glass floor with a dizzying view of the ground 500 feet below.
The elevator ride down, delivers visitors to the "future pavilion" through a neon "vorted" tunnel which showcases various Dubai industries in 2050, including.......infrastructure, transport technologies, Dubai's plans to land in space, and the education, health, and security sectors. |
We went to a mall for lunch and I had to use the restroom. I found these fascinating little tidbits on the back of my stall door and on the wall by the sinks. I just had to snap some pictures because they gave me a good chuckle. Aaron says that they have stuff like that all over the place.
And that's it for the Dubai Museum. Join me tomorrow for the adventure out to the Palm Jameria.
