Photos of same place in Dubai taken 31 years apart shows insane levels of growth
Joe Yates
Featured Image Credit: Al-Futtaim
Dubai's growth has been exponential; it is one of the fastest-growing cities in the world, and probably in history.
Photos taken 31 years apart from each other show just how drastic the Arabian landscape has changed, with its infrastructure underlining the insane levels of growth.
The city, which is part of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is known for being a place of extreme wealth, among other things- so much so that its police can be seen patrolling the streets in Bugattis, Ferraris, and Lamborghinis.
For centuries, the area was known for its pearls. In 1590, a Venetian pearl trader wrote about the quality of the city's gemstones.
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The Gulf's pearl industry took off years later - peaking during World War One, before eventually collapsing in the 1930s, with the last pearling expedition taking place in 1949.
For the next 17 years, life would be dull in the UAE, until 1966 - the same year England won the World Cup for the first and only time.
Yes, in 1966, Dubai struck oil off its coast revolutionized Dubai and the rest of the United Arab Emirates.
It has four billion barrels of oil in its reserves and with such an eye-watering amount of oil wealth pursues, but its what Dubai did with that money that turned it from a rich city to a super-rich city.
It invested that vast sum of money into constructing impressive architecture such as Burj Khalifa, which is by far the tallest building in the world, and the Palm Jumeirah - which is an artificial offshore residential island.
Both creations came under the rule of Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and construction began for both in the early 21st century.
And if finding oil wasn't enough, in February 2020 the discovery of one of the largest natural gas fields, dubbed 'Jebel Ali', only lined those pockets further.
Now, a picture has been shared on social media showing the vast changes in the 31 years between 1985 and 2016.
It came as the now-iconic red and white Toyota sign has been reinstated on the top of a building - with the original building having been constructed in 1974 - just three years after UAE was founded.
Speaking about it to the Khaleej Times, Heidi Struiksma joked: "Something old has remained."
Struiksma has been a resident of Dubai since 1994.