Views of Dubai, United Arab Emirates

There was a pearl-diving and fishing community at the mouth of Dubai Creek for many centuries, but modern Dubai dates its existence to the 1830s when the Bani Yas tribe under the Al-Maktoum family settled there and renounced allegiance to Abu Dhabi. Successive sheikhs encouraged contacts with outsiders, especially the British, who made Dubai a regular port of call. Dubai became one of the Trucial States in 1853. It joined the UAE on December 2, 1971. It has since become a large and modern city, with an estimated population of close to a million in 2004.