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50 free Dubai trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
A hundred years ago Dubai was a pearling town of mud walls and palm-frond houses. This quiz follows how it got from there to the world's tallest building: the 1901 free-port decree, the Al Maktoum dynasty, the gold trade with India, the 1966 oil strike, the 1971 union that made the UAE, and the choice to bet on trade and tourism as oil ran down to under one percent of the economy. The modern skyline gets full treatment: the Burj Khalifa's height, architect, salvaged Berlin steel and Armani hotel; the Burj Al Arab's dhow sail and helipad stunts; the Palm Jumeirah's Dutch builders and monorail; Dubai Mall, the Frame, Ain Dubai, Expo 2020 and the 3D-printed office. There are also questions on the abras of the Creek, the driverless Metro, cream-coloured taxis, the Gold Souk, cricket's governing body, the Dubai World Cup and the weekend that has moved twice. Easy questions ask which country Dubai is in and what the Palm looks like; hard ones want who lent money for the first Creek bridge and how far offshore the Burj Al Arab stands. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the city and its landmarks, and each question carries the sentence that supports it. Try our Skyscrapers and Middle East quizzes next.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Dubai is the most populous city of which country?
The UAE
About 4 million people live there and 92 percent of them are expatriates; the wider Dubai–Sharjah–Ajman area holds 6 million.
Q 02Dubai sits on the coast of which body of water?
The Persian Gulf
The city grew up around a natural saltwater creek that was dredged in the 1950s and extended in 1961 to take bigger ships.
Q 03Dubai began in the early 18th century as a settlement built on which two trades?
Pearling and fishing
The 'Great Storm' of 1908 sank a dozen pearling boats, and the industry's later collapse plunged the town into deep depression before oil.
Q 04Which family has ruled Dubai since 1833?
Al Maktoum
Maktoum bin Butti led the Al Bu Falasah out of Abu Dhabi that year; the current ruler is also vice-president and prime minister of the UAE.
Q 05In 1901 Dubai's ruler took what step that turned the town into a regional trading hub?
Declared it a tax-free port
Merchants moved in from Lingeh across the Gulf, and by 1906 steamers were calling fortnightly and trading 70,000 tons of cargo.
Q 06Oil was finally discovered off Dubai in which year, in far smaller quantities than in Abu Dhabi?
1966
The first field was named Fateh, 'good fortune'; the population then grew by more than 300 percent between 1968 and 1975.
Q 07By 2018, oil production contributed roughly what share of the emirate's GDP?
Less than 1%
Oil had been 24 percent of GDP in 1990; trade, tourism, aviation, finance and real estate now drive the economy.
Q 08Which seventh emirate joined the UAE in 1972, a year after the other six formed it?
Ras Al Khaimah
It joined after Iran seized the Tunbs islands it claimed.
Q 09In 1968 Sheikh Rashid briefly imposed a tax on which abundant resource, lifting it after only 11 days?
Sand
It is remembered as the shortest-lived tax in the region's history; the same year the town got a reliable piped water supply.
Q 10The ruler of which neighbouring state lent the money for the first bridge across Dubai Creek in 1963?
Qatar
Sheikh Rashid asked his brother-in-law for the money and repaid it with a toll on traffic crossing from the Dubai side.
Q 11The two districts on either side of Dubai Creek are Bur Dubai and which other?
Deira
One theory says the name Dubai itself refers to these 'two brothers'; a smallpox outbreak in 1841 first pushed residents across to the eastern bank.
Q 12What are the small traditional boats that ferry passengers across Dubai Creek called?
Abras
They run between stations in Bastakiya and Baniyas Road; the creek itself now handles more than 13,000 ships a year.
Q 13The world's tallest building was known by what name until its official opening in January 2010?
Burj Dubai
It was renamed for the UAE president after Abu Dhabi and the federal government lent Dubai tens of billions of dollars to cover its construction debts.
Q 21The Burj Al Arab's rooftop helipad has famously been used as a venue for all of these except which?
A cricket match
It sits at the 28th floor, 210 metres up, and was also the jumping-off point for the highest kite-surfing jump in history.
Q 22The beach where the Burj Al Arab now stands was once called Chicago Beach because of what?
An American firm welding oil tanks
Chicago Bridge & Iron built giant floating storage tanks called Kazzans on the beach, then floated them out to the Fateh oil field.
Q 23The Jumeirah archipelago of artificial islands is laid out to resemble what when seen from the air?
A palm tree
Q 14How tall is the Burj Khalifa, including its spire?
828 metres
That is just over half a mile; it took the world's-tallest title from Taipei 101 when it topped out in 2009.
Q 15Which Chicago firm designed the Burj Khalifa, with Adrian Smith as chief architect?
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Smith found his prototype looking out of his office window at Lake Point Tower's curved three-wing layout.
Q 16Some of the structural steel in the Burj Khalifa was salvaged from which demolished building?
East Berlin's Palace of the Republic
The primary structure is reinforced concrete; the design also borrows from the Great Mosque of Samarra.
Q 17The Burj Khalifa's Y-shaped, three-lobed floor plan is said to be an abstract version of which desert flower?
Hymenocallis
The design draws on Islamic patterning; a buttressed central core and wings carry the load.
Q 18Which fashion designer's first hotel occupies 15 of the lower floors of the Burj Khalifa?
Armani
The 304-room hotel was the first of four planned by the designer; sky lobbies on the 43rd and 76th floors hold swimming pools.
Q 19The Burj Al Arab hotel's shape is designed to resemble what?
The sail of a dhow
British architect Tom Wright of Atkins designed it; the translucent fibreglass facade shields the desert sun by day and becomes a screen for lights at night.
Q 20The Burj Al Arab stands on an artificial island roughly how far from Jumeirah Beach?
280 metres
A private curving bridge links it to the shore, on the site of the old Chicago Beach Hotel.
The trunk is mixed-use, the fronds are villas and the outer crescent holds resorts; the first homes were handed over in 2006.
Q 24Which Dutch dredging company built the Palm Jumeirah and The World Islands?
Van Oord
Construction began in June 2001 by piling up rock; a 2009 NASA satellite study suggested the islands were sinking 5 mm a year, which the developer disputed.
Q 25The monorail linking the Palm Jumeirah to the mainland holds what regional distinction?
First in the Middle East
It runs from the Atlantis hotel to the Gateway Towers at the foot of the island, with an extension to the Metro's Red Line planned.
Q 26Dubai's Jebel Ali port, built in the 1970s, is described as having the world's largest what?
Human-made harbour
The free zone created around it in 1985 let foreign companies import labour and export capital freely, and it served as a refuelling base in the Gulf War.
Q 27In 2024 Dubai's main airport, DXB, ranked as the world's busiest for what?
International passengers
It handled more than 92 million passengers in 2024 and is the hub of Emirates airline.
Q 28The Dubai Metro, opened on 9 September 2009, was the first rapid transit network in which region?
The Arabian Peninsula
Its trains are fully automated and driverless, and stations are air-conditioned with platform-edge doors.
Q 29Which two colours name the Dubai Metro's original lines?
Red and Green
A Blue Line is due in 2029 and a Gold Line in 2032; Guinness recognised it in 2012 as the world's longest driverless network.
Q 30Dubai-licensed taxis are recognisable by bodywork of what colour, with roofs varying by operator?
Cream
Pink roofs mark the Ladies and Families service with female drivers; more than 3,000 taxis average 192,000 trips a day.