When you are in Dubai and after having seen all the glitz-and-glitter attractions and you are longing for a cultural way to spend your leisure-time, why not drop to the Dubai Municipality Museum to know more on the history of Dubai. The Dubai Municipality Museum features a nice collection of historical papers, having key-importance in the modern history of Dubai.
In order to understand the history of Dubai, we need to know that until the end of the 19th century, Dubai, as it is today, did not exist. The place, where today this shiny and beautiful town can be found, was once mainly a war-zone of the many tribes who wanted to get hold of the territory. Until 1892, when seeing the tribal indifferences were ruling the area, Great Britain, the still the main ruler of the world declared it as a protected area by them. Dubai’s big importance of the area those times lied mainly in their growing pearl business; the other was its very good geographical location as a great business area in the Persian Gulf. Unfortunately, not long after, when the First World War erupted, pearl diving as it was, ceased to exist. Thus, Dubai faced such economical crisis, which initially questioned the continuing existence of the town. Not long after luckily, it came out that, Dubai cannot even continue its existence, but even can grow quickly into one of the ruling ports of business in the whole Middle East, and this was due to the huge oil reserves, which they found in the area of the Middle Eastern regions. Oil then was the way of life for Dubai people such as the whole Emirates.
In the Dubai Municipality Museum, we can get to know a lot more on the history of Dubai, on how they fought with the crisis, how the first oil fields had been excavated, many of the key-agreements and contracts of the town and the whole states, regarding the very first investments and so on. We can witness the starting of the building of the New Dubai, which we can see in its full beauty.
The Dubai Municipality Museum as a building has also witnessed many decades, being built in the fifties. The building of the Dubai Municipality museum is alone worth a visit, having the very traditional and quite rare outlook and structure, called “wakala” a once popular Islamic architectural style. It was built of all traditional building materials. The building used to have three stores downstairs for a while until 1957 when the Dubai state decided to move their municipality offices into the building. The seat of Municipality was here until 1964, when due to space problems, all the offices moved out. In the end of the nineties, the Sheikh had seen the opportunities in this beautiful historical building, and ordered to make it into a museum, telling people about the past, much of which it has witnessed. The former Dubai Municipality opened its doors first as a museum in 2006. Since then it has been operating with much success.
There are also rare photographs found in the Dubai Municipality Museum, showing the first public meetings of the Dubai municipals. You can also see treasured photos on the sites of Al Shola and clock tower roundabouts and the starting of the first buildings and renovations in Dubai.
The Dubai Municipality Museum is located on the narrow streets of the traditional looking old-town, or Medina of Deira, so it is indeed a very authentic area for this beautiful historical building. Near the Dubai Municipality Museum, you can also find a souk.
