If you were to listen to most travel guides on Dubai, you'd think the desert city materialized out of the air a decade ago.
The city exploded in prosperity after United Arab Emirates discovered oil in 1966,, leading to a development boom that has resulted in the world'stallest building, the second-biggest mall , the most luxurious hotel, and more skyscrapers than any city besides New York and Hong Kong.
But Dubai was settled as a port city in the early 1800s, where it became a center for fishing and pearling, and a crossroads of sea and land trade routes through Asia and the Middle East.
That trading history has left behind a legacy of souks, or open-air marketplaces native to the Middle East and North Africa. These are loud, colorful places where traders from dozens of nationalities hawk their wares, as your senses are attacked from every direction.
Dubai has a lot of them: one for spices, one for perfumes, and another for clothing. But the most extravagant is the gold souk, where people come from all over the world to get a deal on that sweet yellow nugget.
As Nada Badran , a Jordanian who has lived in Dubai for most of her life, told me, the souks are the key to understanding Dubai.
Here's what it was like to visit them:
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