Dubai was a backwater pearl port for centuries whose Al Bu Falasa tribe seceded from Abu Dhabi in the 19th Century. The Great Depression Thrusted the small nation further into obscurity, however in the late 50s Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum transformed the oil-less economy into a desert financial hub.
No one believe in the Sheikh’s dream, but Dubai is now the richest and most populous city on the Persian Gulf.
Wealth beyond imagination.
The Sheikdom has golf.
Luxury fantasy villas.
The world within the kingdom.
Russian chuvas.
And sand.
For sand is what will be left once the wealth is gone.
Photos from Bread and Circuses by Nick Hannes