The Dubai Museum is located on the territory of Al Fahidi Fortress, which is considered the oldest building in Dubai, preserved to this day. The fortress, designed to protect the city from attacks by neighboring tribes, was built in 1787, and in 1971 it was decided to turn it into a museum that familiarizes visitors with the history and culture of the city and the emirate of Dubai. Against the backdrop of today's futuristic landscapes of Dubai, Al Fahidi Fort looks like a quiet oasis of the old city. The entrance doors of the museum are reinforced with brass peaks, and two old cannons are installed next to them. To the right of the entrance, opposite the ticket offices, is a large aerial view of Dubai from the 50s of the 20th century, on which the current museum fortress is still surrounded on all sides by the desert. In the open space of the fort's courtyard, palm leaf huts, a wind tower, fishing boats and a two-masted Arab dhow are exhibited. Most of the museum's exhibits are located on the underground floor of Al Fahidi fortress. After descending the spiral staircase, visitors enter the first hall, which presents old maps of Dubai. The next room is a video room, where a film showing the history of Dubai from 1830 to the present is shown on a large screen. The Dubai Museum is strikingly different from many of these museums. Its exhibits are not exhibited in beautifully lit windows as lifeless objects, but as if they have become part of a "living" eastern city. Life-size dioramas introduce visitors to the history and traditions of the emirate. The expositions are decorated in the form of a shopping arcade of a traditional Arab market with artisans and buyers, city scenes - a man is sitting on a street corner reading something, a woman in clothes is standing in front of the store and studying windows, a blacksmith is lighting his fire. There are dioramas depicting scenes from the life of the Bedouins and the traditional Arab family, desert residents and pearl hunters. The largest diorama tells about the role of the sea in the life of the inhabitants of Dubai. Visitors can see how the Dhow fishing boats were built, "observe" the work of pearl seekers and the "life" of the port. Inspection of the dioramas is accompanied by visual effects and the reproduction of sounds of a noisy bazaar, splashing waves or rustling sand, and aromas of spices are released from hidden nozzles. The archaeological section of the museum is a collection of antiquities found during archaeological excavations in the historic districts of Al-Qusais and Jumeirah. The weapon collection contains traditional daggers - khanjars with rich inlay, rifles, small round shields made of African rhino skin, shark fin shields. “Only someone who knows the history of Dubai can understand why Dubai today is what it is,” say employees of one of Dubai’s most interesting and visited museums.