Dubai’s iconic glistening towers rose from a bronze age desert landscape once roamed by nomadic cattle herders, where fishermen and pearl traders lived for millennia. 

The history of this Emirati giant, marked by extensive trading links between civilizations, defines much of what has made it the world destination it is today, renowned for its outward gazing perspective and all-encompassing vision.
 
The uncanny newness of the city is largely due to the fact that oil wasn’t discovered in the area until 1966. In the last few decades, the skyscrapers twisted towards the sun from sandy foundations as fast as their digital renders proliferated architecture blogs.

Yet in the shadows cast by Dubai’s iconic skyline, there is a deep history as well as a bright vision for the future. Visitors to the city can retrace the ages from ancient past and even capture a glimpse of time to come in the abundance of museums and cultural spaces.

For a step back into the Iron Age the Saruq Al-Hadid is an archaeological site on the edge of the Rub Al-Khali desert. The Saruq Al-Hadid Museum showcases the era of metalworking with thousands of iron tools, stoneware, bronze pots, precious beads, gold jewelry and fossils preserved in their original condition. 

To learn more about Dubai’s Bedouin and pearl-trading past the Al Fahidi Fort, home of the Heritage Village and the Dubai Museum, provides a journey through the emirate’s past with artifacts dating back to the third millennium B.C. as well as more recent objects displayed. If it is pearls that your clients are interested in, then arrange a visit to the Emirates NBD Pearl Museum.
 
The town of Hatta in the Hajar Mountains dates back several centuries and the Hatta Heritage Village is one of the oldest in the emirate, originally built in an era of citadels, forts and towers. The area is scattered with springs and lush valleys offering a stark contrast to the glassy facades of the city.

The Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding (SMCCU) is a renowned space for learning about Emirati culture and heritage, with a full schedule of activities, including a range of Arabic classes, heritage tours and guided mosque visits. The location itself is worth the visit, a beautifully restored wind tower house in the historic Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood. 

The Etihad Museum offers a contemporary history of the United Arab Emirates in a magnificent new building located in Jumeirah. The museum has a series of interactive pavilions with a focus on photos and films which show how the country has developed throughout time, especially between 1968 and 1974.

For those who wish they had a crystal ball, the giant ring-meets-spacecraft structure Museum of the Future is due to open in 2020, promising a display of how technology may evolve in the next 20 years.