Dubai Guide
Bur Dubai
Strung out along the southern side of the Creek, the district of Bur Dubai is the oldest in the city and encapsulates all the various strands that have gone into the making of Dubai's cosmopolitan cultural fabric, from traditional Arabian mosques and Emirati houses through to neon-lit modern shopping strips stacked high with electronics, computers and designer watches, while innumerable down-at-heel curry houses, catering to the district's predominantly Indian and Pakistani population, add a further splash of ethnic colour. At the heart of the area, the old-fashioned Textile Souk provides Bur Dubai with its major point of reference, bounded to the north by the more modern shopping areas centred around Al Fahidi Street and Khalid Bin Al Waleed Road. Tucked away amidst the endless shops are a sequence of absorbing traditional attractions, including the excellent Dubai Museum, the historic old quarter of Bastakia and a smattering of other traditional buildings – most notably the Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum House and Heritage Village, two of a series of reconstructed old Emirati buildings that straggle along the Creek at the western edge of the district in Shindagha quarter.