Deira Clocktower

About Deira Clocktower

Roundabout in Dubai, UAE

The Deira Clocktower, originally called the Dubai Clock Tower, is one of the best-known landmarks of Deira, standing in the middle of a large roundabout where Umm Hurair Road, coming from Al Maktoum Bridge, meets Abu Bakr Al Siddique Road. It was built in the 1960s, before the founding of the UAE in 1971, which makes it one of the few monuments that witnessed the birth of modern Dubai and its growth from a small town on the Creek into the commercial capital of today. The tower was designed to face four roads at once, so that its clock faces can be seen from whichever direction you approach: four curved concrete legs rise to meet at the top, holding the clock at their centre, in a distinctive modernist style of the period. The British Daily Telegraph listed it among the seventeen most beautiful clock towers in the world. It is less a place to visit than a landmark to notice in passing: a much-loved wayfinding point for Dubai's residents and a reminder of the city before the skyscrapers, attractive when lit at night.

Where:

Dubai, United Arab Emirates