DEIRA:
Deira is situated just to the North and East of Bur Dubai (old town) and is the old financial center. It was the most modern part of Dubai until projects like New Downtown, Sheikh Zayed Road and Dubai Marina were released in the late 90s/2000s. Today the skyline seems really small compared to the newer parts in the south, but as late as in the 1990s, this was the only modern skyline of Dubai, and some of the buildings were really considered futuristic.
In Deira there is also a really old part with several souks (markets), such as the gold souk, the spice souk and the golden souk, mosques and the Deira Shopping center (Dubai's most popular mall) etc. You also find several international luxury hotels here. Port Saeed, part of Deira, holds the dhows (old fashioned cruise boats), abras (water taxis) and small shipping boats. The National Bank of Dubai, The Clock Tower and the Maktoum Bridge are among the landmarks in Deira.
We never visited Deira actually, we only saw it from across the creek, from the waterside of Bur Dubai and Al Shindagha. Originally we planned to go to Deira, but since there was so much to see in Bur Dubai, that took the whole day. Anyway, the best view of Deira is from afar.
Deira skyline and Dubai Creek (Al Khor) seen from Bur Dubai. It might not look much today, but this was the picture that were used in the 1990s to market Dubai i travel catalogues, before the large construction boom. The tallest building, with the convex glass facade, is the National Bank of Dubai from 1998, designed by Carlos Ott (125m, 25 floors). The blue glass building is the Chamber of Commerce from 1995, only 18 floors. The white building with the triangular shape is the Sheraton Deira Hotel, built already in 1978, the first futuristic building of Dubai. Right above it is Dubai Creek Tower from 1995 and the building is the huge golf ball on top is the Etisalat Building (all of Etisalat, the national telecom company's buildings have golf balls on top) from 1992. Old abras (water taxis) and dhows (wooden cruise ships) can be seen on the creek.
Twin Towers (right, 102m) from 1998 are among Dubai's first skyscrapers, not very tall today though
Hyatt Regency on Deira, seen from Al Shindagha. This hotel has revolving rooftop restaurant. In front of it is the famous fishing market
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