Dubai in 1962: Look how houses were made of palm fronds, pickup trucks served as school buses

Dubai in 1962: Look how houses were made of palm fronds, pickup trucks served as school buses

New photo exhibition captures pre-oil daily life in the emirate, with snaps of Sheikh Rashid, a skyline dominated by wind towers and more

All photos by Yoshio Kawashima. Photos courtesy: Dubai Culture and Arts Authority

Published: Wed 1 Feb 2023, 6:00 AM

Have you wondered what Dubai looked like in the 1960s? A new photo exhibition in the city captures the daily life in the emirate in 1962 — before the emergence of oil.

From students being transported to school in pickup trucks to shops displaying jewellery in a simple box, Dubai has indeed come a long way.

One of the photos displayed at the exhibition shows ‘areesh’ houses, made of palm tree fronds, which, according to the caption of the image, were “common dwellings” at the time:

Today, Dubai has a manmade island shaped like the palm tree! The photograph above also shows American-made Dodge and Chevrolet cars parked on a sandy road.

The photo is part of 25 taken by Yoshio Kawashima, a Japanese photojournalist from the Sankei Shimbun Newspaper, during his visit to the Middle East, accompanied by his colleague, Hiroshi Kato.

Fresh water was a luxury back then. The photo below captures the “happy faces” of people on getting their fill:

The photo exhibition, titled