Dubai, UAE-Crossroads of Civilizations 1

We were in Dubai in 2015 and saw many of the famous tourist sites (yes, even the mall) so we decided to do something different during our day here. After hearing about a Holocaust exhibit at the Crossroads of Civilizations Museum (CCM), we were intrigued, researched the other content in the museum and decided this would be a great way to learn about Dubai and its history and its cultural connection to the Middle East from a different viewpoint.

CCM has the personal collection of historic artifacts, old photos, maps, rare manuscripts / books, and armory of Ahmed Obaid Al Mansoori (a former member of the United Arab Emirates Federal National Council). As the “crossroads” of trade between Europe, Africa, and Asia, the United Arab Emirates has always had a key role in trade and the message here is that human tolerance of diversity, and multiculturalism, in all its forms enables creativity in art and trade. Dubai was and is welcoming to all civilizations to settle and to travel through its ports and cities and understanding and accepting of the perspectives of others bringing them closer together, from East and West.

It is revealing how travelers journeyed through our region, and how the borders of civilizations and countries changed over time. The vision of the museum is to bring people together by looking at the positive historical relationship through a large quantity of letters from different travelers, autographs, artifacts, manuscripts, letters of kings and explorers etc. The work from different generals of the Army and Sultans of old times have been also kept there. Among these galleries are Historical Royal Gallery, Multi faiths, Sword and Daggers Gallery, Old books gallery, Local history gallery, Traditional guns’ gallery, Palestine & Holy gallery, and Explorer gallery. Collections include glass artifacts stored from old civilizations, ceramic, stone collection is of Roman armors, sculptures, antique statues that are preserved on stones and rocks and coins. There was also the first ever Holocaust exhibition to open in the Arab world! Note: Egypt has just opened the second exhibit last year.Read more