8 thoughts on “Dubai Before and After”

  1. Would love to know the dates for the 2 photos. They actually reminded me of my 2 childhood visits to Orlando (1977 and 1984), where deserted roads with attractions/hotels on scattered lots on my first visit were suddenly incorporated and ‘downtown’ on the next.

  2. The ‘after’ pic looks more like late 2003/early 2004.

    I reckon the ‘before’ pic is much earlier … 1987/88 perhaps.

    I grew up & live in Dubai so those pictures made me smile (and long for days when driving on the Sheikh Zayed Road wasn’t a traumatic experience!).

  3. The ‘before’ picture must be around 1979/80 just after the Trade Centre and related Apartments (foreground) were completed.
    I have a 1990 aerial photo of the Emirates Golf Club which I’ll try and post. Water everywhere from a phenomenal rain storm.

  4. I found these images on the BBC website. They credit the photographer as Pier Pistocchi, and date the images from 1991 and 2005.

    You can see my blog post about this here.

  5. I had the fortune to visit the dubai GP of the past few years everytime I go back Dubai looks totally different. Most definalty one of the fastest growing places at th moment

  6. I was there in 1977 & the trade centre was being built, my school room mates father worked for Sunley, we used to play football on a 5 a side pitch behind the trade centre the migrant workers had built. There was very little there back then, have only passed through since, do not recognise the place! So much construction!!
    Don’t know the date of the latter photo.

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