Look: Expo 2020 site then and now shows how Dubai realised a dream in 5 years

Dubai - Photo collage shows Sheikh Mohammed at Expo site in 2016 and 2021

A then-and-now photo collage of the UAE Vice-President at the Expo 2020 Dubai site in 2016 and 2021 illustrates how the country transformed a dream into reality in five years.

The first half of the collage shows His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, at the Expo site in 2016. The site was nothing but a desert then.

Fast-forward to September 1, 2021 - when the Dubai Ruler visited the site to kickstart the one-month countdown to the mega event - and you see him atop the 55-metre ‘Garden in the Sky’ observation tower, taking in 360-degree views of all that Expo has to offer. Visible in the image are the Expo 2020 Water Feature and the iconic Al Wasl Dome - the largest 360-degree projection surface in the world.

Sheikh Mohammed had visited the site on Wednesday to inspect the final preparations and declared that the UAE is ready to welcome the world for the region’s first world expo.

The photo collage was posted by Khalifa Saeed Sulaiman, Chairman of Protocols for the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, on Instagram. He captioned it: “Expo 2020 Dubai Site in 2016 & 2021.”

The realisation of the Expo dream within five years proves what Sheikh Mohammed said earlier today: “The UAE does not wait for the future, it shapes its own future.”

• Dubai