Dubai Creek is now Traders' harbour

Dubai - Modified bid for Unesco heritage site submitted.

Dubai has given a new name to its bid to get the historic area around the Creek recognised as a Unesco World Heritage Site.
The new name of the modified bid is "Khor Dubai (Dubai Creek): The Traders' Harbour," and highlights the role of the Creek in building the history of Dubai as a trading city, a senior official told Khaleej Times on Sunday.
The renaming was done when the emirate resubmitted its bid to Unesco, (the United Nation's Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation), which had in 2014 deferred Dubai's initial attempt to enter the prestigious list that includes Egypt's pyramids and India's Taj Mahal.
"We resubmitted our modified application on January 30," Rashad Mohammed Bukhash, the Director of the Architectural Heritage Department at the Dubai Municipality, said.
"We have changed the dossier and we have changed the name," he said after the opening of the 4th International Architectural Conservation Conference and Exhibition.
He said the new name depicts the new focus of the bid for the recognition.
"Dubai was known as a trading city and Creek was the traders' harbour. So we thought it is apt to rename the bid and also focus on the trading life of Dubai Creek, apart from the historic city and architectural heritage around it," said Bukash.He said the hope for Dubai's entry into the prestigious list of World Heritage Sites is now "much bigger."
The Dubai dossier will now be studied by the Unesco experts who will visit the site for inspection in October. An announcement about the eligibility of Dubai Creek to be a World Heritage Site can be expected in June 2017.
In 2014, Dubai was forced to limit the heritage area for the site to just 1.75sqkm from the previous 4.5sqkm stretch. The emirate was also asked to meet other prescribed technical specifications before resubmitting the bid.
The modified submission has demarcated heritage site along the creek stretch from the beginning of Shindagha till the end of Al Fahidi historic area.As many as 692 old houses in Shindagha and Fahidi areas, Al Fahidi Fort, Ahamadiya school and the old souqs of Bur Dubai and Deira come under the proposed heritage site.
The Dubai Historical District is currently undergoing major renovation works approved last February by His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to boost the emirate's attempt to revive the charm of old Dubai.
 sajila@khaleejtimes.com

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