Dubai is a city built on money. With one of the fastest growing economies in the world, the City of Gold thrives on international finance, with many transactions literally focusing on buying and selling gold. This shows, as the city is littered with grandiose structures, from hotels to corporate headquarters to the world’s tallest building.
With such opulence on clear show, there are a wealth of sights to be seen and recorded by intrepid photographers. And if you want to share the experience fully with the world, giving those pictures the right caption can be fundamental to getting your image to shine its brightest.
We’ve put together a selection of some of the most striking things to see around the city along with a few caption ideas to get your cogs turning.
The Buildings
The government of the Emirate of Dubai have been focussing on tourism in recent years, and many weird and wonderfully exotic hotels have sprung up around the city since then. This, combined with the ever-competitive construction of taller and taller buildings has helped create a city rife with fascinating examples of modern Islamic architecture. It also shows in the skyline, which makes for impressive images day or night, thanks to the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower at 2,722ft.
This massive edifice’s three-lobed design was inspired by a flower from the nearby desert, and this organic influence is felt elsewhere in the city’s architecture. Your captions can highlight these sources of inspiration, and help to shed light on what the buildings’ forms represent.
Architectural Caption Ideas
- “Atlantis is a fitting name for this hotel, as it seems as if the sunken kingdom has risen again in all its glory atop a man-made palm.”
- “The Khalifa Tower pierces Dubai’s skyline like a tapering thorn thrust at the sky.”
- “Soaring high over the city is a luxury not restricted to helicopter owners and Dubai’s many birds.”
- “The curves of the Burj Al Arab intentionally evoke the sails of the ships plying the waters nearby, billowing in the breeze.”
The Seafronts
Dubai is a city that has reclaimed land from both desert and sea. Surrounded by the sand dunes of the Arabian Desert and flanked by the Persian Gulf, the city presents a number of striking contrasts to the camera’s lens. Sand, sea, and soaring buildings together make for fascinating points of focus.
There are many exquisitely up-kept beaches in the area thanks to the proliferation of hotels along the coast, though it is all man-made beauty rather than natural spectacle. Your captions could show off the awesome effort and impressive results gained in the grand and ever-growing project that is the city of Dubai. It also wouldn’t hurt to draw attention to the conspicuous affluence on display.
Seafront Caption Ideas
- “Carefully arranged loungers await the carefully coiffed tourists to come.”
- “Sand meets sea in a spectacular display of mankind’s willingness to build what they want, where they want.”
- “It’s incredible to watch the sun glittering off the Persian Gulf from a beach that used to not exist.”
- “Dubai’s beachfront hotels are expensive for a reason: each one has its own parcel of land carved out of the sea.”
Dubai Marina
In most cities, the local marina is a relatively small area in which more affluential residents can park their boats. That’s not the case with Dubai Marina, which is so large it makes up an entire district of the city. Still under construction, the project will be the world’s largest man-made marina when it is completed, but even now the artificial canal-city is a sight to behold.
If islands like the Palm Jumeriah show off what happens when land is claimed back from the sea, then the Marina is an incredible example of the sea being brought into the land. Traditional wooden dhows and abras ply the waterways alongside much more modern vessels, and there have been many sightings of sea life in the waters.
Marina Caption Ideas
- “This whale shark looks almost as amazed to be in Dubai’s Marina as I am.”
- “Tradition clashes with the luxurious present on the Marina’s waters.”
- “Inviting the waters of the Gulf to lap at the toes of the city.”
- “The towering Venice of the desert sands.”
The Mosques
If you stay in Dubai for any longer than a quick stopover at the airport, you will soon become familiar with the strains of the call to prayer. Five times, day and night, Muslims around the city will congregate at their mosque to give praise. While some are quite austere, others display some incredible artistry in their construction and adornment.
Striking a respectful tone is always a wise choice for religious subjects, whatever you personally believe. After all, Dubai itself is one of the most religiously tolerant cities in the world, with freedom of religion enshrined in the constitution.
Mosque Caption Ideas
- “The dawn breaking over the silhouette of the mosque is a sight to behold.”
- “An injunction against drawings didn’t stop the architects from creating incredible works of art.”
- “The beating religious heart of the city…”
Goodbye, Dubai
The right captions can help immortalize your time in the City of Gold. With a huge range of luxurious scenes to choose from, you’ll surely come away with some fantastic memories.
Got an awesome picture of Dubai with an equally great caption to go with it? Share it with us in the comments below.
