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Podcast: Middle East Dossier
Episode: Bridging the Gulf Episode 12 — A Compatible Contradiction? Heritage and Modernity in Gulf Cities
Description: The bulldozers are here. This time, they are here for Jebel Ali – the region’s first major shipping hub and dry dock located in Dubai. Like many other built relics in the Gulf, including the coral stone homes of Dubai’s rulers along its famous saltwater creek, these buildings were razed to make way for more modern structures. This is the story of the meteoric rise of Gulf cities – most of them were once sleepy pearling towns but they now embrace soaring skyscrapers and megamalls. Beyond the superlatives (the “tallest”, the “biggest”, the “most expensive” etc.), sociocultural anthropologist Sulayman Khalaf writes that G...