Al Fahidi Wind Towers

The Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood — long known as Al Bastakiya — is Dubai's oldest surviving quarter, laid out on the Bur Dubai bank of Dubai Creek. It was established in the late 19th century by Persian merchants from the Bastak region of Iran, who came to trade and settled beside the Creek, and its buildings were constructed from coral stone, gypsum and palm wood in a dense maze of narrow shaded lanes known as sikka.

The neighbourhood's signature feature is the barjeel, or wind tower: the four-sided, chimney-like structures rising from the rooftops. These are among the earliest forms of passive air-conditioning, catching even faint breezes at height and funnelling cool air down into the rooms below — a sophisticated response to the desert climate long before electricity reached Dubai. The wind-tower form, with roots in Persian and older regional architecture, once signalled a household's standing by the number of towers it carried.

By the mid-20th century, as Dubai modernised, Al Fahidi fell into decline and faced demolition; it was saved by concerted preservation efforts in the 1980s and is now maintained under the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority. Today its restored wind-tower houses hold museums, art galleries, heritage cafés and cultural institutions, including the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding (SMCCU). It remains the best-preserved concentration of traditional architecture in the city — a quiet, low-rise counterpoint to the skyline a few kilometres away.

Al Fahidi sits on the Bur Dubai side of Dubai Creek, a few minutes' walk from the Bur Dubai abra station and close to Al Fahidi and Al Ghubaiba metro stations (Green Line). Enter the neighbourhood from the Creek side and simply wander the narrow sikka lanes; the wind towers are visible on the rooftops throughout. The Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding, set in a restored wind-tower house, is a good orientation point.