When you talk about Dubai today, you have skyscrapers, luxury and modern architecture in mind. Old photos of today’s metropolis show how quickly this new image of Dubai emerged: Almost 50 years ago, Dubai was still a small, modest city that was dominated by oil and gold trade and smuggling. At that time nobody thought of tourism as a source of finance.
World Trade Center: At that time the largest building in the Gulf region was in Dubai
Even in the late 1970s, when what was then the largest building in the Gulf region in Dubai, the reactions to it were extremely skeptical. Many residents believe that the 149-meter-high World Trade Center would not be worth it. It turned out differently – the first skyscraper in Dubai was a success and at the same time the model for many other high-rise buildings that were built in Dubai afterwards.
ME Dubai: This is what the luxury hotel designed by Zaha Hadid looks like
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Dubai in the past: instead of luxury cars, handcarts were still driving the streets here
The Arab metropolis also looked significantly different on the streets: where luxury cars from Rolls-Royce, Bugatti and Ferrari are lined up today, ordinary cars were the main driving force on the streets. In doing so, they repeatedly had to deal with unusual obstacles – because many Dubai traders still transported their goods by handcart and camels and dromedaries often crossed roads.
From the large, almost 80 million liter oil tanks to a modern metropolis of the 21st century – the transformation of Dubai into today’s metropolis can be seen in the late 1980s with the construction of golf courses and hotels.
Sources: Imago, Picture Alliance