Even the world’s biggest and most established cities had to start somewhere and the earliest hubs for places like New York, London and Sydney can be traced to the natural water inlets which continue to be very much at the heart of those cities today.
Dubai is no different and the bustling Creek, which slices through the centre of the city, has become one of the best-known waterways in the world. The Creek is the natural seawater inlet, which is the historic focal point of life in Dubai.
Since earliest times, Dubai has been a meeting place, bringing together the Bedouin of the desert interior with the pearl diver, the merchant of the city with the sea-going fisherman.
While skyscrapers and billion dollar developments have kept Dubai on the move over the last 20 years, a stroll along the banks of the Creek will evoke memories of the city’s centuries-old trading traditions.
Anything from cars and air conditioners to food and even kitchen sinks are loaded up by human chains onto these magnificent wooden vessels that are built to tackle the fiercest of conditions that the Arabian Sea can throw at them.
Dubai’s central business district is divided into both Deira and Bur Dubai, which are connected by a tunnel and two bridges. Each has its share of fine mosques and busy souks, of public buildings, shopping malls, hotels, office towers, banks, hospitals, schools, apartments and villas.
The new headquarters of the National Bank of Dubai produces a shimmering reflection of the Creek through its striking use of polished steel and glass. This is also the DTCM’s head office in Dubai.
The most distinctive and remarkable buildings are ranged on the Deira side, including the Etisalat Tower, the Department of Economic Development, Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DTCM), The National Bank of Dubai headquarters and Dubai Creek Tower.
The best way to view the Creek and the dhows is from an abra, one of the small water taxis which criss-cross the Creek from the souks of Deira to those on the Bur Dubai side.
A crossing costs just 1 AED (Dirham) but for around Dhs150, the boat is yours’ for an hour and boatmen take visitors on a fascinating trip from the abra embarkation points to the mouth of the Creek and inland to the Maktoum Bridge, passing on the way many of the city’s historic and modern landmarks.
Seagulls are visiting Dubai during the autumn migration. The most spectacular are the many Greater Flamingos
The souks on both sides of the Creek are attractive not just for their shopping bargains but also as places for the sightseer and photographer. In other small streets, shops sell nargilehs (hookah or hubble-bubble pipes) and coffee pots, and nearby tea stalls where both of these items are in daily use. In the tiny lanes of the spice souk, the atmosphere and the scents of the past can be savoured. Bags of spices, incense, rose petals and traditional medicinal products are stacked outside each stall.
On the Bur Dubai side of the Creek are lanes full of textile shops, where a blaze of colourful raw silks and cottons hang in profusion in shop windows.
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At Al Fahidi Fort in Bur Dubai, which houses the Dubai Museum, a throw back to yesteryear can be enjoyed. It once guarded the city’s landward approaches. Built around 1799, it has served variously as a palace, garrison and prison.
It was renovated in 1970 for use as a museum; further restoration and the addition of galleries were completed in 1995. Colourful and evocative dioramas, complete with life-size figures and sound and lighting effects, vividly depict everyday life in pre-oil days. Galleries relive scenes from the Creek, evoking images of traditional Arab houses, mosques, the souk, date gardens, desert and marine life.
Pearl divers risked life and limb to gather oysters from the seabed, often diving for more than two minutes at a time, with little more than a nose-clip and a heavy stone to weight them down. Such was the renown of Dubai’s pearls, that pearling continued to be the mainstay of the city’s prosperity, until the development of the cultured pearl in the 1940s led to the collapse in demand for the natural variety.
The Creek was a place where the men returned home after months at sea to be reunited with their families and for the trading of their catches to begin.
The birth of a fishing industry soon led to the development of boat building, net-making and pearl diving and Dubai’s enterprising traders sailed the oceans in search of markets for their products.
The fish souk in Deira is an attraction in itself. Early in the morning and late at night, local fishermen unload mountains of fresh fish, which they sell in a frenzied bargaining session. Kingfish, red snapper, rock cod (the popular hammour), barracuda, tuna, lobster, crab, king prawn, sea bream, squid, pomfret, shark, mackerel, sardine and other species are available in abundance for most of the year.
Along the slightly larger lanes of the gold souk further inland, each shop window is crammed with gold necklaces, rings, bangles, earrings and brooches. In the evening the area is a hive of activity.
