Abu Dhabi Central Bus Station
Mint-green concrete wings folded over a 1989 terminal — Gulf modernism still doing its day job.
Abu Dhabi
Al Maqta Bridge
A pale blue steel truss from 1968 — the first permanent way onto the island, and still carrying traffic.
Al Maqta Watchtower
A coral-stone tower on an islet in the channel — one of Abu Dhabi's oldest buildings, and you cannot reach it.
Aldar Headquarters (The Coin Building)
A 121-metre glass disc standing on its edge — the Middle East's first circular skyscraper, and its most-photographed silhouette.
Capital Gate (The Leaning Tower of Abu Dhabi)
An 18-degree lean, four times Pisa's — a skyscraper built deliberately off-balance and held there by steel.
Hudayriyat Bridge
The UAE's first cable-stayed bridge — 1.3 kilometres out to an island that was closed to the public until it opened.
Mamsha Al Khair
A granite monolith and limestone blocks along the Corniche, carrying a quotation every thirty metres.
The Emerging Man (The Giant)
An eight-metre head and two vast hands surfacing out of the Gulf, as though something enormous is climbing out.
The Humans by Fatspatrol
A hundred metres of black-and-white figures in profile — dreamers, visionaries and jokers on a nightclub wall.
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