Al Maktoum Residence
The ruling family and its 19th-century rulers.
Iwona Rege — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Celia Brock — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Ayshamarjana — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Thushara.Mohanan — CC BY-SA 4.0
Al Shindagha Museum fills 80 historic houses in Al Shindagha, the district at the mouth of Dubai Creek on the Bur Dubai side. Dubai Culture calls it the UAE's largest open-air heritage museum: 22 pavilions on Dubai life from the mid-19th century to the 1970s. The first houses opened in 2019; the completed museum was inaugurated on 6 March 2023. Al Shindagha was home to the Al Maktoum, Dubai's rulers since 1833. Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum House, built around 1896 under Sheikh Maktoum bin Hasher, served as residence and seat of government, and Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum, ruler from 1912, lived there until his death in 1958. The house was restored from 1986. From 1995, old maps, photographs and elderly residents' memories guided the restoration of the rest of the district to its 1950s look. Begin at the Dubai Creek – Birth of a City house, where objects, photographs and films tell the creek's story. The Perfume House, once the home of Sheikh Saeed's daughter Sheikha, shows an incense burner some 3,000 years old from Saruq Al Hadid. Culture of the Sea recreates pearl diving in virtual reality, and Life on Land's 4D theatre takes you soaring over desert and mountains through a falcon's eyes. Al Ghubaiba metro station (Green Line) faces the Dubai Creek house, with parking along Al Khaleej Street. Allow two to three hours; last tickets are sold at 19:00. In a straight line, Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood lies 1.1 km east and the Spice and Gold souks 0.7 to 1 km across the creek in Deira.
The ruling family and its 19th-century rulers.
How traditional Emirati scents are made.
A bridal set lent to over 2,000 brides.
Al Shindagha, Bur Dubai, at the mouth of Dubai Creek
Dubai Spice SoukA traditional market in the Al Ras area of Deira, also called the Old Souk, on B9 minutes walk4.4
Dubai CreekThe waterway out of which the whole of Dubai was cut — a natural inlet running s9 minutes walk4.6
Gold SoukA covered market in Deira where hundreds of gold shops face each other down a si12 minutes walk4.3
Al Fahidi Historical NeighbourhoodThe oldest surviving quarter in Dubai, also known as Bastakiya — narrow lanes, m14 minutes walk4.7Children under five, people of determination with one companion, Emirati citizens over 60 and ICOM card holders enter free. Full-time students aged 5 to 24 pay 20 AED, and groups of five or more 40 AED each, per Dubai Culture's price list.
An archaeological site in the desert some 40 km inland from the coast at Jebel Ali, spotted by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum from his helicopter in 2002; people lived, traded and worked metal there from about 2600 BC into the Iron Age. A gold ring found there inspired the Expo 2020 Dubai logo, and the museum's Saruq Al Hadid house shows finds from the site.