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ABU DHABI

Abu Dhabi, which translates from the Arabic in to “Father of the Gazelle,” is the United Arab Emirates’ largest emirate and, by some estimates, the world’s wealthiest city.

Abu Dhabi also refers to the city that serves as that emirate’s capital. That city lies on an island in the shape of a T that shoots out in to the Persian Gulf. The vast majority of the city’s denizens are foreigners; about 1.8 million denizens call Abu Dhabi home. Abu Dhabi also contains Lulu Island, a lucrative landmass that is said to contain some of the United Arab Emirates’ most expensive real estate.

Abu Dhabi is in many ways the cultural center of the United Arab Emirates. It counts such formidable institutions as the National Theater and the Cultural Foundation as some of its hallmarks. What is more, the Guggenheim Museum is set to open up a large branch here in the year 2011. The Museum will be designed by Frank Gehry and will house an impressive collection of modern and contemporary art. It will allegedly be the largest branch of the Guggenheim in the world.

The Guggenheim will be located on Saadiyat Island, which is gradually becoming the cultural center of Abu Dhabi. Saadiyat, once completed, will also contain several performing arts centers as well as classical art museums. Over twenty eight billion dollars is being invested in this project.

Until being incorporated in to the United Arab Emirates upon the country’s founding in the year 1971, Abu Dhabi was primarily associated with camel herding, as well as agriculture and fishing. Well in to the twentieth century, people occupying the area would live in palm fronds; rich families would live in houses made out of mud.

That all changed in the late 1950s, when oil was discovered. With the help of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahayan and the British, the area would become wealthy thanks to its oil.

The United Kingdom withdrew from the area in the late 1960s, thus enabling Sheikh Zayed to push for the formation of a new country, which would become the United Arab Emirates in the year 1971. Throughout the 1970s, Abu Dhabi was able to shed all signs of its primitive past thanks to rapid growth in the oil sector.