As Dubai has transformed beyond recognition in the past few decades, its Creek has been a mainstay of this current of change.
The waterway is the home of a well-travelled trade network that has, since the early 19th century, been kept alive by hawkers, businessmen and artisans. It is where you'll find traditional dhows, still to this day ploughing up and down alongside abras, or water taxis, and speedboats filled with tourists looking for a glimpse of old Dubai from a new perspective.
The view from the Creek has, in many ways, changed irreversibly, and yet, at the same time, not much has shifted at all — as you can see from this Getty Images photo taken in May 1967, when compared with The National's image in May 2022.
Buildings have sprung up all around, as has an entire nation — the UAE was formed four years later, in 1971 — and a blossoming city that continues to transform today.
Yet the Creek's foundations run deep, its significance unquestioned in the face of enormous upheaval.
Back in the 1950s, Dubai life centred around it. Back then, Dubai was merely a town, with a population of about 20,000, with people living around Bur Dubai, Deira and Shindagha.
Vessels ploughed the Silk Route, trading goods such as wood and spices with East Africa and India, while pearling fleets left and returned from the spot during the diving season.
Around the middle of that decade, the decision was made to dredge Dubai Creek, an unprecedented and complex job that gives new meaning to the now regularly used term “mega-project”.
A build-up of silt was preventing larger ships from entering the waterway, and in a place that was then relying on its maritime trade for economic success, it was advised, among other things, that a 60-metre wide, 914m-long channel be cut from the bed in the Creek to the sea.
Work started in 1959, and was more or less finished by the early 1960s. As more ships arrived, new neighbourhoods and districts were established and life began to branch out from the Creek.
The year 1967 — when the above photo was taken — wasn't particularly remarkable in the history of Dubai when compared with other more significant dates. The population was about 59,000. In March, there was a smallpox outbreak. On May 1, the now-defunct Dubai Zoo opened.
But the tide was rapidly turning, as a town became a city, the population flourished and a simple creek became a passage to the world.
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, second leg
Roma 4
Milner (15' OG), Dzeko (52'), Nainggolan (86', 90 4')
Liverpool 2
Mane (9'), Wijnaldum (25')
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
MATCH INFO
Chelsea 0
Liverpool 2 (Mane 50', 54')
Red card: Andreas Christensen (Chelsea)
Man of the match: Sadio Mane (Liverpool)
DUBAI WORLD CUP RACE CARD
6.30pm Meydan Classic Trial US$100,000 (Turf) 1,400m
7.05pm Handicap $135,000 (T) 1,400m
7.40pm UAE 2000 Guineas Group Three $250,000 (Dirt) 1,600m
8.15pm Dubai Sprint Listed Handicap $175,000 (T) 1,200m
8.50pm Al Maktoum Challenge Round-2 Group Two $450,000 (D) 1,900m
9.25pm Handicap $135,000 (T) 1,800m
10pm Handicap $135,000 (T) 1,400m
The National selections
6.30pm Well Of Wisdom
7.05pm Summrghand
7.40pm Laser Show
8.15pm Angel Alexander
8.50pm Benbatl
9.25pm Art Du Val
10pm: Beyond Reason
MO
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Diriyah%20project%20at%20a%20glance
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if you go
The flights
Emirates flies to Delhi with fares starting from around Dh760 return, while Etihad fares cost about Dh783 return. From Delhi, there are connecting flights to Lucknow.
Where to stay
It is advisable to stay in Lucknow and make a day trip to Kannauj. A stay at the Lebua Lucknow hotel, a traditional Lucknowi mansion, is recommended. Prices start from Dh300 per night (excluding taxes).
Trolls World Tour
Directed by: Walt Dohrn, David Smith
Starring: Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake
Rating: 4 stars
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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