Located south of Dubai Creek, The Al Fahidi Fort built in 1787 has survived through the years and is considered the oldest standing structure in Dubai. This fort was renovated and transformed into Dubai Museum, which is now a popular tourist attraction in Dubai. The Ruler of Dubai opened the museum in 1971 so that the traditional way of life in Dubai could be captured and preserved.
The museum's historic setting makes this a perfect place for a journey back in time when Dubai was merely a desert settlement. Dubai's simple and traditional life before the discovery of oil which brought its extravagant advance towards modernism can be witnessed here. In the museum, different wings are dedicated to various aspects of Dubai’s Bedouin era, with galleries that contain exhibits and life-size dioramas that illustrate daily life before the invention of technology and modernism in the emirate.
Several exhibits illuminate the trade route of Dubai by displaying local antiques and artifacts from countries that traded with Dubai. These exhibits illustrate how Dubai started out as a modest village settlement before it took the world by storm with its innovative and astonishing new-age attractions and architectural marvels that transformed it into a world-renowned tourist destination. The entrance fee to Dubai Museum is AED 3 for adults and AED 1 for children below the age of 6.
Goryōkaku (五稜郭) (literally, 'five-point fort') is a star fort in the Japanese city of Hakodate on the island of Hokkaido. The fortress was completed in 1866. It was the main fortress of the short-lived Republic of Ezo.
Goryōkaku was designed in 1855 by Takeda Ayasaburō and Jules Brunet. Their plans was based on the work of the French architect Vauban. The fortress was completed in 1866, two years before the collapse of the Tokugawa Shogunate. It is shaped like a five-pointed star. This allowed for greater numbers of gun emplacements on its walls than a traditional Japanese fortress, and reduced the number of blind spots where a cannon could not fire.
The fort was built by the Tokugawa shogunate to protect the Tsugaru Strait against a possible invasion by the Meiji government.
Goryōkaku is famous as the site of the last battle of the Boshin War.