Dubai, United Arab Emirates — Towns & Travel Guide

What is Dubai known for?

The Emirate of Dubai is known as the City of Gold, a name earned over generations as a hub of the gold trade on the Persian Gulf. Its story is one of transformation, from open desert to a dense coastal emirate. Dubai city anchors the territory and draws the crowds.

The surrounding emirate carries the older maritime trade that built the place. Gold, sea, and sand define it.

Where is Dubai?

The Emirate of Dubai lies on the Arabian Peninsula, along the southeastern coast of the Persian Gulf. It is one of the seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates. The gulf forms its seaward edge, a warm and shallow sea that has shaped the emirate's life for centuries.

Dubai city grew on a creek that cuts inland from the shore, giving the coast a sheltered natural harbour used for trade. Along the Persian Gulf shore, Dubai's ground barely rises above the sea. Behind the coast, it slides quickly into desert.

Inland, the emirate reaches into the sand of the Arabian interior, where dune fields replace streets. The built-up strip hugs the water, and the neighbouring emirate of Sharjah runs into it so closely that the two share one urban area, extended further by Ajman along the same shore. Away from that band, the territory is open and dry.

Sharjah and Ajman continue the same coastal line beyond the emirate's edge. The Persian Gulf remains the defining feature, the reason the settlements face the water and turn their backs to the desert. Sea in front, sand behind.

What is Dubai like?

The Emirate of Dubai carries the character of a trading port turned global city. Its old identity as the City of Gold still runs through the place, a legacy of generations spent as a hub of the gold trade on the Persian Gulf. Commerce is the through-line.

The emirate sits within the Arab world and the wider Middle East, and Arabic remains its language of identity even as many tongues cross its markets. Trade drew the world here, and the world stayed. Two faces meet in the emirate.

One looks to the sea and the merchant traffic of the gulf, an outlook built on exchange and movement. The other looks inland to the desert, older and quieter, the Arabian interior that surrounds the coastal strip. The transformation from open sand to a dense city happened fast, and that speed marks the culture as much as any monument.

People come from across the Middle East and beyond, so the emirate feels layered and mixed. Under it all, the gold-trader's instinct endures.

What is the history of Dubai?

The Emirate of Dubai grew from a small trading settlement on a creek off the Persian Gulf. Its early wealth came from the sea and from a long role as a hub of the gold trade, which earned it the name City of Gold. Commerce and the water sustained it.

The desert was later pushed back as the settlement expanded from the shore. When the United Arab Emirates formed, Dubai took its place as one of the seven emirates of the new federation.

What is the climate of Dubai?

The Emirate of Dubai has a hot desert climate under a subtropical sky. Its summers are long and severe, made heavier by the humidity that rolls off the Persian Gulf onto the coast. Winters bring a short, warm reprieve.

Rain is scarce and comes in brief bursts. The desert inland swings between fierce daytime heat and cooler nights, while the gulf keeps the shore muggy.

How do you get to Dubai?

Most visitors arrive in the Emirate of Dubai by air, landing at Dubai city, the coastal gateway on the Persian Gulf. Roads run along the shore to neighbouring Sharjah and on to the other emirates of the United Arab Emirates. The Persian Gulf carries shipping to the emirate's ports.

Inland routes cross the desert toward the interior. From the airport, the city and the coast are close at hand.