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.
The Villa d'Este is a 16th-century villa in Tivoli, near Rome, famous for its terraced hillside Italian Renaissance garden and especially for its profusion of fountains: the extraordinary system contains fifty-one fountains and nymphaeums, 398 spouts, 364 water jets, 64 waterfalls, and 220 basins, fed by 875 meters of canals, channels and cascades, and all working entirely by the force of gravity, without pumps. It is now an Italian state museum, and is listed as a UNESCO world heritage site.
Tivoli had been a popular summer residence since ancient Roman times due to its altitude, cooler temperatures and its proximity to the Villa Hadriana, the summer residence of the Emperor Hadrian I.
The Villa was commissioned by Cardinal Ippolito II d'Este (1509-1572), second son of Alfonso I d'Este, the Duke of Ferrara and grandson of Pope Alexander VI, along with Lucrezia Borgia.