Dubai

World's Fastest Growing City

Old Mosque in Dubai

United Arab Emirates is a federation of seven emirates: Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-Quwain. The largest is Abu Dhabi emirate, which also contains the nation's capital city Abu Dhabi.

Dubai City

Dubai is the 2nd largest of the 7 emirates, after Abu Dhabi. Dubai refers to both: one of the 7 emirates that constitute United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the actual 'Dubai city'.

United Arab Emirates were created in 1971, although Dubai city has existed for over 150 years prior to that. UAE borders with Oman to the East and Saudi Arabia to the South and West, while facing Iran to the North across Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz. Situated nearby is also Qatar, to the North-West. UAE is one of Tropic of Cancer countries.

Growing Dubai Population

Officially Dubai has 1.2 million population, of which 13% are locals, while the rest comes from India, Pakistan and the Philippines. It's the world's fastest growing city, having grown from 180,000 population in mid 1970s to now, as some estimate, around 1.5 million. The language spoken is Arabic, although English, Hindi and Urdu are all widely spoken.

The famous Burj-al-Arab

The currency is Dirham, pegged to the US dollar at a rate of Dh3.67 to $1 U.S. The dirham divides into 100 fils.

The country's dialling code is 971, while Dubai city area code is 4. Emergency numbers are:

997 - Fire
998 - Ambulance
999 - Police

Becoming ever more popular with tourists and investors alike, Dubai visits 4-5 millions of visitors per year, and this number is growing every year.

Around 94% of Dubai's growth comes from tourism, while the other 6% comes from oil. In 2006 Dubai's economy was worth 46 billions of US dollars - 46 milliards as per European numbers.

Bakery shop in Dubai

Gold is 30% cheaper in Dubai than in Europe.

It's a well known duty free zone - Jebel Ali free zone.

Dubai Slideshow

Building growth in Dubai is such that 15% of all world tower cranes are currently in Dubai.

See our Dubai slideshow by downloading it here - click here to download Dubai Slideshow (right-click, save target as). The file is 2.71 MB in size and contains 24 large pictures with descriptions.

You will need MS Powerpoint to view the slideshow, with .pps extension.