Dubai: 200 Years in an 8-Minute 3D Time-Lapse — From Pearling Village to City of Glass

How did a pearling village on a muddy creek become a city of glass? Watch 200 years of Dubai unfold in 8 minutes, from a walled town of palm-frond huts in 1822 to the skyline of 2026. One slow, unbroken flight over a true-scale 3D recreation of Dubai, built on real map and satellite data, driven by one year clock. The town grows on the pearl trade, burns in 1896 and becomes a free port. Then comes the gamble that changed everything: the Creek is dredged in 1959. Oil, the union of 1971 and a road into the desert follow. Then the city makes its own land: the Palm, The World, the Marina. The Burj Khalifa climbs past every building on Earth, the cranes stop in 2008, then return. The film closes at sunset over the Creek, from the same angle as 1822. Spotted a historical error? Tell me in the comments. 🎬 CREDITS 3D recreation and animation: Blender (Cycles) Map data: © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database Licence (ODbL), openstreetmap.org/copyright (Geofabrik extract) Shorelines and built-up dating: Landsat imagery courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey, accessed through the Microsoft Planetary Computer Ground colours: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2025) Terrain: Copernicus DEM GLO-30, © DLR e.V. 2010–2014 and © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH 2014–2018, provided under COPERNICUS by the European Union and ESA Built-up areas: GHSL, European Commission Joint Research Centre, CC BY 4.0 Tower heights and dates: Wikipedia, "List of tallest buildings in Dubai" (CC BY-SA); CTBUH Skyscraper Center 1822 town and Creek: Lt. Cogan, "Trigonometrical Plan of the Back-water of Debai" (1822), British Library IOR/X/3690, via the Qatar Digital Library The Creek works: Ridehalgh (Halcrow), "Dubai Creek Entrance", Coastal Engineering Proceedings; J. G. Lorimer, Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf (1908) Population: Dubai Statistics Center; Dubai Data and Statistics Establishment More cities from the series: Tokyo · San Francisco · Seoul · London · Central Park · Bangkok · Paris #Dubai #History #UAE #Timelapse #BurjKhalifa #DubaiCreek #UrbanHistory #3DAnimation #تاريخ_دبي